There has been a lot of speculation lately about possible official decisions over the events at Medjugorje since that mid-summer in the early 1980s when the devotion to Mary inherent in the Croatian spiritual tradition exploded at Medjugorje.

So far as I can see the whole matter has been gradually centralised, from the local parish clergy to the their Franciscan superiors, then to the Bishop of Mostar, then to the Conference of Former Yugoslav Bishops, then to the Bosnia-Herzegovinan hierarchy, and now it seems to the Vatican.

Many people are frustrated by this kind of delay and point to earlier examples of long periods of people receiving visions of Mary which were recognised even while they were going on.

For myself, I am quite grateful for the delay. It has allowed a lay-led spirituality to emerge honed by the careful ministry of a very large number of priests and bishops accompanying pilgrim parties as spiritual directors.

The situation has been aggravated by the recent disciplinary action against the former Fr. Vlasic, who was for a short time active in Medjugorje. The action seems to have nothing to do with Medjugorje and everything to do with Fr. Vlasic's maverick approach, an approach I personally regard with much suspicion, and which, I repeat,has nothing whatsoever to do with Medjugorje. However the critics have latched onto the association, which was short, and are keen to stir up trouble. Very odd when we consider that Bishop Peric, the local diocesan and a perennial critic of the apparitions, cannot see what the action against Vlasic has to do with Medjugorje!

My advice?

Ignore this and concentrate on what is actually being said officially, and note also what is not being said officially!

A major criticism is that the visionaries report nothing new, no new dogma, in what they report Mary as saying to them. However, this makes sense, if rather uncomfortably so. The apparition is claimed to have commented that her mission is specifically to the Western Church under its leader, the Pope in Rome.

I am not a Roman Catholic, nor an Orthodox Christian but an Anglican, and a member of the "Society of Mary" which includes both Roman and Anglican Bishops in its leadership. My experience suggests that such the message reported is right. It is the Church in the West, all denomination, including Rome, that has declined in the simple matters of Christian life that is recommended in the messages reported. It has also declined in that healthy devotion to Mary which the present Bishop of Mostar recommends, and reportedly observes in the life of the visionaries.

Nothing new then at Medjugorje? For the Church at large, No! For the individual, the challenge to a reappraisal of their spiritual life by means of the traditional spiritual exercises espoused at Medjugorje by the visionaries, the local parish, and the pilgrims i.e. Prayer, Commitment to God, Faith, Fasting, and Peace.

This month's message in its simplicity asks us, once more to renew our observance of those matters.

Enjoy them! Enjoy their fruit of deeper devotion, and a more faithful witness!

Yours ay,

Ted Baty