UPDATE: Medjugorje and the great work of Diane M. Korzeniewski OCDS (& a rant on Bayside)

Just as a BY THE WAY, Diane M. Korzeniewski, OCDS of Te Deum Laudamus fame, has a mega site on what’s really what regarding Medjugorje. It’s a portal for all things dealing with Medjugorje from a faithful ecclesiastical perspective. That’s always important, but especially now that a decision about Medjugorje from the Holy See is coming by the end of the year.

➔ http://medjugorjedocuments.blogspot.com/

Reading over this site and it’s multitudinous links is important for those who are given to Medjugorje or know those who are. This is a way to prepare yourselves for what is to come.

I have known many who have said horrific things like:

• If the Vatican rejects Medjugorje, I’ll just continue taking from Medjugorje what I think is right. [That's the lack of docility that brings one right out of the Church, right?]
• Not even the successor of Peter has the right to say anything whatsoever about Medjugorje until all the apparitions have ended. [I've heard this canard even from the most highly respected "conservative" priests and bishops. This is just unthinking. The local bishop and the Holy See can always make interventions whenever appropriate. This also displays the lack of docility that brings one right out of the Church, right?]
• I like people who like Medjugorje: How dare you not like Medjugorje. [Because it's all about you, right? Uh huh...]
• I converted only because Mary was appearing in Medjugorje. [This was actually aired by the English Programme of Vatican Radio some years ago. If that is the only reason to convert, so that Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, the Magisterium of the Church and the Ecclesial Family of Faith with all the Sacraments means NOTHING compared to Mary possibly appearing in Medjugorje, then that "conversion" is no conversion at all. It is simply an insult to the Church.]
• What I learned at Medjugorje is that converting to the Catholic Church is unimportant. [This point has been insisted upon repeatedly in the "messages" and by many "pilgrims" and by the "great theologians" who defend anything and everything from Medugorje. Makes me want to vomit...]
• Of course there are heresies in the English rendition of the apparitions, but that’s just the fault of the translation. [And so, tell me, honestly, they've not in all these many decades been able to find anyone to translate these things correctly? Really? Come on, tell me the truth.... Really?]

Blah, blah, blah… So, check out Diane’s Medjugorje portal and her wonderful blog!

UPDATE: Anyone remember the Bayside, N.Y. “apparitions”. I had heard about them when I was a seminarian, and hoped people would just get over it. There were plenty of nice things, like promotion of the rosary and adoration. But there was also a sedevantist mentatlity, dead set against the hierarchy of the Church, both the local episcopacy and the Bishop of Rome, but not about any point concerning justice or what have you, but instead because the “visions” were not being approved.

There were also lots of creepy things, like the “visionary” talking to Mary by phone! Also, the normal abnormal things went on in abundance, like weird poloroid pictures of weird stuff, or changing color rosaries, things, mind you, which in all my years I’ve never heard happen at approved apparition sites like Guadalupe, Fatima and Lourdes, only at places like Bayside and… wait for it… Medjugorje. Sorry!

False apparitions are like any insidious lie, which is mostly truth with just a bit of falsity in it — just a bit, so you don’t notice it — and then you’ve been fooled. “Look at all the nice things!” Yes. Nice. False apparitions always have ongoing battles – not just difficulties, which are expected — but real bitterness that is voiced against the hierarchy. Bad, that.

Totally bitter disobedience at Medjugorje has been rife throughout the decades. The local bishops always said that there is nothing of the supernatural with the “visions” and that pilgrimages were not to be organized. Total disobedience. Same with Bayside.

Anecdote: This is just an anecdote and I’m not generalizing. This goes in the “just me” bucket. I was a deacon in a certain parish which sported the sister of the parish priest as the housekeeper. They were both in their 60s. She was an avid Baysider and was always after me about whether or not I believed in the apparitions. With utter calm I tried to explain the importance, or not, of apparitions. In another conversation I explained that the local bishops had, one after the other, condemned the apparitions. In another conversation I explained that the Holy See had backed the bishops in this condemnation. Her appeals to sedevacantism fell on deaf ears. One morning, I thought I would do something I almost never ever do, which was to sit down and read the local newspaper. She was in the kitchen. When she realized I was in the sitting room — totally minding my own business, quiet as ever — she came rushing out of the kitchen at me with a butcher knife. When I didn’t react in the least, she stopped her rush and reprimanded me for having the face of an angel! [I'm sure my guardian angel was duly insulted!] She wanted me to believe in Bayside, but, no, I wouldn’t do it. She faded back into the kitchen, and I kept reading the paper for just a minute or two, and then went on about whatever it is that deacons do in parishes. Yikes! I’m not generalizing. Just an anecdote for your entertainment.