49
October 09, 1996

PRESS BULLETIN




MEDITATION

Our Lady seeks graces of God for us. This is what she tells us in her messages. What is there to be guilty of, how much have we destroyed?

Nothing! Exactly that! God doesn/t want a record of our offences, He wants to reward us. This is the reason why we are "guilty of nothing". Of course we are guilty and we will be again, even if in a small measure.

Gods' grace within us opens up new horizons and new ways of looking at life. In the Catholic church there has been much treatment of this concept. I don't know if we've ever read of it, but what I do know is that we must all adhere to the Word of God. When we have God's grace, there is never an obstacle that we cannot overcome. It melts the ice which we accumulate on our daily travels. It helps us to understand why we must suffer, why bad things happen to us even though we pray and obey Gods' commandments. This, as we all know is one of the most difficult questions we'll ever ask ourselves in our walk on this earth. It is wise to be armed with the grace of God in order to answer it.

Fr. Miljenko


N E W S

THE NUMBER OF CONCELEBRANTS AND HOLY COMMUNIONS

Throughout the month of September in the shrine of the Queen of Peace in Medjugorje, there were 84,000 holy communions distributed and at holy mass a total of 2141 priests frome at home and abroad concelebrated,averaging at 72 priests daily.

THE LATEST VATICAN STATEMENT ABOUT MEDJUGORJE

From the beginning of June 1996 many of the public means of communication reported that the Vatican had prohibited pilgrimmages to Medjugorje. Spokesman for the Holy See, Joaquin Navarro- Valls immediately refuted this. However, in case there would remain any doubt regarding the stance of the Vatican towards Medjugorje, the spokesman for the Holy See clarified their position once again. Here we treat of the subject in full:

"INDIVIDUALS PERMITTED TO VISIT MEDJUGORJE, OFFICIAL SAYS" By Catholic News Service

While the Vatican has never said that Catholics may not go to Medjugorje, it has told bishops that their parishes and dioceses may not organise official pilgrimmages to the site of the alleged Marian apparitions, the Vatican spokesman said.

"You cannot say people cannot go there until it has been proven false. This has not been said, so anyone can go if they want," the spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, told Catholic News Service Aug. 21.

In addition, he said, when Catholic faithful go anywhere, they are entitled to spiritual care, so the church does not forbid priests to accompany lay-organized trips to Medjugorje in Bosnia- Hercegovina, just as it would not forbid them accompanying a group of Catholics visiting South Africa.

Navarro-Valls insisted "nothing has changed" regarding the Vatican's position on Medjugorje.

In early June, a French newspaper published excerpts from a letter about Medjugorje pilgrimages written by the secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Fatih in response to a question from a French bishop.

The letter from Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone of the doctrinal congregation quoted from a 1991 statement by the bishops of former Yugoslavia, which said that after much study,"it cannot be confirmed that supernatural apparitions or revalations are occurring here."

However, the bishops said - and Archbishop Bertone repeated - the number of the faithful travelling to Medjugorje requires for the church to arrange for their pastoral care.

After quoting the 1991 statement, Archbishop Bertone wrote, "From what was said, it follows that official pilgrimmages to Medjugorje, understood as a place of authentic Marian apparitiond, should not be organised either on a parish or diocesan level because it would be in contradiction with what the bishops of ex-Yugoslavia said in their declaration cited above."

Navarro-Valls said, "When one reads what Archbishop Bertone wrote, one could get the impression that from now on everything is forbidden, no possibility" for Catholics to trtavel to Medjugorje.

But, in fact, "nothing has changed, nothing new has been said", the spokesman told CNS. "The problem is if you systematically organize pilgrimages, organize them with the bishop and the church, you are giving a canonical sanction to the facts of Medjugorje," which the church is still in the process of studying.

"This is different from people going in a group who bring a priest with them in order to go to confession," the spokesman said.

Navarro-Valls said he commented because "I was worried that what Archbishop Bertone said could be interpreted in too restricted a way. Has the church or the Vatican said no (to Catholics visiting Medjugorje)? No."

INDICATIONS FOR PRIESTS

We would ask priests coming to Medjugorje to bring their stoles with them. We would also ask that mass be celebrated in agreement with the Parish in the area of the sanctuary and not in private homes or Apparition hill or Krizevac. . .



Published by : INFORMATIVNI CENTAR MIR - Svetiste Kraljice mira
(Information Center MIR - Shrine of the Queen of Peace),
88266 Medjugorje, BiH, fax number: 00387 88 651 444.
Director: fra Miljenko Stojic.
You can receive the latest issue of the Press Bulletin at any time on your own fax machine in the tone
mode by dialing the Robofax in our Information Center at +387-88-65-15-55.
Published every other Wednesday.


BackHomeOverviewInfo
Last Modified 10/09/96