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LOCAL BISHOP REMOVES PERMISSION TO HAVE MASS AT COMMUNITY NEAR MEDJUGORJE
On the apparition beat, it has been brought to our attention that a community unofficially associated with the famous apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the Oasis of Peace, has been prohibited from having Mass or Adoration any longer.
The community, on land just outside of the hamlet, was a favorite stop and prayer spot for many pilgrims and where seer Marija Pavlovic often had her apparitions. The order came from Ratko Peric, the bishop of Mostar, last week.
The Adoration monstrance there was opened Thursday and the Host consumed, as ordered by the diocese, which also is disallowing Confession from being heard there, according to well-placed sources.
While Bishop Peric, who long has battled with Franciscans who dominate the Medjugorje area, no longer has jurisdiction over the apparitions themselves (that authority is now in the hands of a Vatican commission), he maintains control over liturgical issues and also barred another community known as Cenacolo (which rehabilitates drug addicts and other troubled young people) from allowing a second seer, Mirjana Soldo, from having her monthly apparition in its large auditorium (she now receives the Blessed Mother at the "blue cross" near the base of Apparition Hill). The communities have been described by some as Medjugorje's "defense walls," by others as a distraction (away from the main church). At the least, they are at the periphery.
Is it all a move to restrict or move against Medjugorje itself? Or just a tightening of liturgical matters?
There is also the question of priests:
One, Father Petar Ljubicic, who serves as a spiritual advisor to Mirjana (and will supposedly reveal her first secret when the time comes) had requested a move back to Medjugorje and was in Citluk (the neighboring town) but instead has now been assigned an hour-and-a-half away to a parish in the Tomislavgrad area.
Meanwhile, Father Jozo Zovko, the pastor at Medjugorje at the time of the initial apparitions, and a well-known speaker on the events, has taken a year sabbatical during which he will not be addressing pilgrims. According to one report, the priest, who was jailed by Communists when he supported the seers in the early 1980s, will spend his year off on an island near Dubrovnik.
There are reports that this move was also initiated by Bishop Peric, who has long sought to silence the priest, and who attempted to remove some of his faculties, although health matters are also thought to figure into the decision and his order says Father Jozo himself requested the year off for medical reasons. The priest recently underwent treatment for a male-related affliction.
[resources: Medjugorje and the Church and Sent To Earth]
[see also: Cenacolo brings radical cure and Blog: Pope spoke in inspired way about Medjugorje)
