In his letter ‘Medjugorje apparitions’, Emanuel Falzon said he and many others totally disagree with me on asking: “Are the Medjugorje apparitions and their daily messages a fake?”

He left out the premise on which my question was built: the quotation from Pope Francis: “But I know a visionary, who receives letters from Our Lady, messages from Our Lady. But, look, Our Lady is the Mother of everyone! And she loves all of us. She is not a postmaster, sending messages every day.”

Falzon said he contacted Wayne Weible, expert on the Medjugorje events. Whoever this person is, he is in no way an authority on Medjugorje ‘apparitions’ to say if they are real or a fake. Only the Catholic Church can do so.

According to Weible, the Pope’s comments do not refer to the Medjugorje apparitions. Why not?

The Pope referred to a person receiving daily messages from Our Lady. In the case of Medjugorje ‘apparitions’, there are three visionaries: Marija, Vicka and Ivan, who allegedly still have daily apparitions. Each apparition carries a message.

At the direction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Apostolic Nuncio to the US, Archbishop Carlo Vigano, sent a letter to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stating that clerics and Catholics are not permitted to participate in meetings which take for granted that the supposed Marian apparitions in Medjugorje are credible. The Congregation affirmed thus: “On the basis of the research done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.”

The comment by the Holy Father was made on November 14 while the letter by the Apostolic Nuncio was sent on October 21. Since three Church commissions failed to find any evidence to support the veracity of the alleged apparitions, it would be illicit for priests to express their private views contrary to the official position of the Church.