NEUM 1997
FAMILY PASTORAL - Paul M. Zulehner, Vienna
MARY AND THE FAMILY - Fra Ljudevit Rupcic
THE FAMILY IN THE CONTEMPORARY - Fra Joko Srdanovic
THE FAMILY IN THE MESSAGES OF OUR LADY - Fra Slavko Barbaric
ACTIVITIES OF THE MEDJUGORJE "MIR" INFORMATION CENTRE - fra Miljenko Stojic
THE POSITION OF MEDJUGORJE IN THE CHURCH - René Laurentin
Fr. Paul M. Zulehner is a doctor of philosophy and theology. He was born in 1939. He is professor of pastoral theolgy' and head of the state University at Vienna.
Fr. Ljudevit Rupcic was born in 1920 in Hardomilije, Ljubuski. In 1939 he entered the Franciscan Order in the province of Hercegovina, and in 1946, he was ordained a priest. He finished his studies in Theology in the University seminary in Zagreb. He completed a doctorate in 1958 and received the habit there. From 1958 until 1988 he lectured in New Testament exegesis on franciscan theology in Sarajevo, and also in the University seminary in Zagreb. Under the former Yugoslavian Communist regime he served two prison sentences from 1945 to 1947 and again from 1952 to 1956. For a longer period (1968 until 1981) he was a member of the theological commision aiding the Episcopal Conferences of former Yugoslavia.
He has accomplished a translation of the New Testament from it's origins into the Croation language, and his translation has had continuous re-publication. His books, studies and articles have been published in Croation, English, German and Italian, and he has lectured at various conferences and meetings throughout Europe and America.
Fr. Josko Srdanovic, M.D. (psychiatry) was born in 1954 in the village of Kucici near Omis, where he completed elementary school. He continued secondary school education in Split. He proceeded to Medical University in Zagreb, and went on to specialise in psychiatry in Germany. For nine years he practised as a doctor. In 1989, he left his work at the psychiatric clinic for children and youths', in Zagreb in order to enter the Franciscan order in the province of St. Cyril and Method where in 1994 he finished his University seminary and was ordained a priest. At present he lives and works at the franciscan priory at Varazdin. There he operates therapy for, and prevention of drug abuse in the Republic of Croatia, holding individual discussions with those who have family-difficulties and psycho-spiritual problems. He is also an animator' of franciscan youth and of prayer groups, and holds spiritual retreats.
Fr. Slavko Barbaric was born in 1946 in Dragicina. At Visoko, Sarajevo and Schwaz (Austria), he studied Theology. He was ordained a priest in 1971. He received a doctorate in the area of religious pedagogy in 1982. From 1982 onwards he has been in Medjugorje. He has written many books and articles on spiritual matters. He works at the shrine. He has led numerous spiritual retreats and talks, and in many parts of the world he has held meetings on the theme of the happenings at Medjugorje.
Fr. Miljenko Stojic was born in1960 in Dragicina. He did his theological studies in different Universities namely :Zagreb, Jerusalem and Sarajevo. He was ordained a priest at Mostar in 1987. At the Papal university,"Antonianum" in Rome in 1991 he completed a "licence" in Theology, specialising in christian and franciscan spirituality. As a priest he has worked in various parishes and for a period was educator in the seminary. During the war he was military chaplain. He holds spiritual retreats. He is a recognised writer and is a member of the Croatian literary society. He lives and works in the Parish of Medjugorje presently fulfilling the role of curit and organiser of the Information centre "Mir".
DECLARATION
We, the 130 leaders of prayer groups, Centers of Peace, and organizers of pilgrimages, from 21 countries, have dedicated our Fourth International Prayer Meeting at Neum from February 24 - 28, 1997 to meditation on spirituality of the family. Through our listening to the lectures, our group discussions, the sharing of experiences, praying and celebrating the Eucharist, we have come to understand more profoundly that the family is:
- essentially rooted in the creative plan of God;
- particularly honored in the Holy Family through the Incarnation;
- in Christianity consecrated by the sacrament of matrimony.
We have become more aware that today's family is in crisis, but also that hope exists for the family and for the world. To all men of good will we wish to testify to that hope. To all who revere the Queen of Peace we recommend striving to live Our Lady's messages:
- by community prayer in the family;
- by the reading of Sacred Scripture;
- by communal celebration of Holy Mass.
If God obtains his own true place in the family, then the Church, the family, and the world will be renewed. That way we will become capable of joyfully entering the new millennium with renewed hope.
To everyone in the world that spreads Our Lady's messages we recommend to remain in the service of the truth and not to spread ideas in the name of Medjugorje that are not in agreement with those messages. We recommend, therefore, interpersonal communication, as well as communication with the "MIR" Information Center in Medjugorje.
FAMILY PASTORAL
The church was established by its founder to make room for life and to ward off different forms of death. This refers, first and foremost, to eternal life, as well as to eternal death. But Jesus didnt intend the "kingdom" to begin only after death, but rather to start in the "here and now", even if this is possible only in traces. He said that in Himself it is present already and, whenever someone enters his community, the kingdom of God expands throughout the world. Then, space, which is healthy and healed, opens up. Therefore, Christian men and women are those through whom heaven touches us in the "here and now".They do not aspire to heaven as something which begins only after death. One of the main vocations of the church is to transform life so healingly that there are traces of heaven already now in the midst of our lives. Every Church community, therefore, is called upon to be such a place, through which heaven reaches us and is among us. Hence, these places transform our everyday life into a life that seems to have passed "from death to life"(1John3:14) as after the resurrection.
Life within the family is definitely one of the most important areas of our everyday life. People all over Europe regard life in the family as one of the most important areas of their life (1). There we see that all of us are valuable and unconditionally accepted. In the family we can both grow and be rooted and so we experience both freedom and security.
The church then, representing healed life and bearing traces of heaven in our everyday life, has, therefore, always paid attention to human life, especially of its own members within the family structure. It is precisely this caring attention which is at the heart of family pastoral.
Out of the many themes of contemporary family pastoral, there are three which we will touch upon today: They deal with average marriage/family tradition. Namely:
(1)Approach to starting a family (including marriage preparation),
(2)Life within the family (life of christian families within the church community, especially within the parish.), and
(3)Family break-up (i.e. death, separation, divorce etc.)
1.APPROACHES TO ESTABLISHING A FAMILY
1.1 Fitness to Marry
Families are always made up of concrete persons. The better the individual members have developed and the further they continue to develop, offers better chances for the family. Therefore, a short marriage preparatory course is never enough in itself as preparation for life in the family. It takes much more time: time, for example, given in a good family tradition, or time spent in good youth programs within the church. When preparing for life within a family structure, one is faced with important requirements:
(a) First, to be built up as an independent and self-confident person. Marriage requires that a person leaves his mother and father (Genesis), a task that most young people are finding harder and harder to do today. Often they grow up without a father because of over-involvement in their jobs or wars take the father away from their families. Leaving the mother becomes more and more difficult especially if a mother has been living in an almost inextricable symbiotic entity with an only child for many years. In order for a child to grow up and become an independant individual, a child needs both mother and father.
This ability to stand alone, this individualism, is a good basis upon which one can develop the capacity to resist, i.e. for not succumbing to every stimulation. To be able to postpone desires is an important aspect of the maturity required for marriage.
One part of the development of the self is also development as a man or woman.Today many people think that this is best attained in groups of the same sex as opposed to mixed groups. Experts in youth pedagogy are, urging for single sex groups as well as mixed groups for this reason.
To develop as a person also includes integration of the gift of sexuality within the person. Every fear-ridden distortion of this great gift of God to mankind is a basic disregard for Our Creator.
People, who have developed as individuals, wll find it much easier to live a single life. This is especially true for men. Someone who is not capable of living alone is not fit to marry either. All his life, this person will actually not seek a partner, but rather a mother to spoil him.
(b) The ability for solidarity is something which develops while the independent self is being developed. Only a person who has a self he can let go of, can be self-less. Self- love and charity imply one another. Without strong solidarity and the ability to withstand strain, life in the family is not possible. Family is at the same time the place where solidarity can be learned.
(c) A third important requirement for persons forming life companionship in the family is spiritual broadness. It is important that the family members do not "cocoon" themselves, as it is referred to lately, or trap themselves into a mode of living, which is more and more narrow. From a spatial point of view, broadness means not only seeing oneself and ones own small world, but also the wider surroundings. From a temporal point of view, broadness means that a person not only looks for happiness in his limited lifetime. This, however, is one of the characteristics of our culture. We want the maximum of happiness in a short period of time and without having to suffer for it!. We want what the young refer to as "everything and subito!" Life, thus, becomes for many a last opportunity (Marianne Gronemeyer). This basic attitude, however, drives a person to "gamble for fortune", which constantly overstrains the persons around him.
(d) A mature religious development, together with development of the individual himself, brings about the right understanding for the sacramental dimension of a christian marriage.
1.2 Preparation for Marriage
Many church districts have developed marriage preparatory programs because they are worried about the christian formation of the family and married life. Models vary as far as methods and schedules are concerned. Seminars with small groups of couples meeting at different intervals, seldom over the period of a year. As well as this, there are also short large meetings. The objective is either to instruct or learn by exchanging expriences. Often the couples are being accompanied by experienced married couples, physicians and pastors.
The everyday skills are practised (such as, learning how to argue, communication, dealing with money, child education etc) however, although well meant, the most important thing is often overlooked. It is understandable in this way: in "love" we are all unconsciously searching for eternity and endlessness, i.e. for God. Secretly, we expect this from one another. Yet, no one can give this. So, in order for love to succeed, it is necessary to spare our partners from our inner spiritual "over" expectations. Roman Bleistein therefore asks of lovers to have, "the virtue of mercy; with it, I forgive the other that he cannot be my God".
Such sensitive theological work of liberation is very rare in the marriage preparatory seminars. By the way, this doesnt contradict the wedding liturgy, which says that God has 'united the lovers. We devoutly trust that God does accompany the lovers on their path through life as the "faithful God"(Dtn 32:4) but this doesnt excuse us from our duty to spare our loved one from false religious 'over-expectations.
Love only flourishes in the context of mercy, i.e. the readiness to always forgive.
1.3 Marriage Accompaniment
In some parishes, young married couples have formed groups with newly-weds, or have joined Basic Ecclesial Communities. This has proved to be a success. In some parishes, couples who have already been married for a longer period of time, invite newly-weds in order to share experiences. These 'Marriage Accompaniments are having positive reports across church boundaries. Even though partnership needs a protected space in which intimacy can grow, it also needs support from others.
2. FAMILY LIFE
If the Church really cares about families, she will best perform her welfare services, if she becomes thoroughly aware of the living conditions of present-day family life. It would be of little help, therefore, to 'write off modern culture as bad. Instead, let us recognize that contemporary family culture has both strong and weak points.
2.1 The Strengths of the Contemporary Family Culture
One of the strong aspects is how highly people value family living space. More than 90% of Europeans say that family life is the most important area of their lives. This is not surprising since it is there that they find 'space formed with stability and love.
Another strength is the readiness for solidarity within the family structure. There are several aspects of this unwritten agreement between the generations.
(a) Solidarity between parents and children.(parents share their own chances of life with their children. When the man is not willing to do so, abortions are more likely);
(b)The solidarity of the family with relations (family life includes several generations , sometimes also single relatives.These persons are part of the family net, even if they are not all living under the same roof. In critical times, however, they can count on their solidarity);
(c) Solidarity of children with their parents (an aspect of this inter-generational agreement is the unrenounceability of the desire of many to die at home. In 1989, Cardinal Carlo Martini, Chairman of the Council of the European Bishops Conferences said, "just as the parents bring the children into the world, so children will have to accompany their parents out of this world in the future"). This demand, for the moment is probably an ideal and will most likely be realized only over a long period of time. This development is of highest importance in the long run, because of the tendency to wish to die at home, but also to ease the burdens of hospitals.
One of the more positive developments of contemporary family life is what could be referred to as 'relationship ecology: Knowledge about the fragility of a system of relationships (partnership/family) helps to avoid mistakes which at the same time threaten our 'Eco-System. Couples today know that their energies are limited. We know that it is because of constant and excessive demands that the ability of a partner to carry burdens is eroded and that constant strains, regardless of how small, can lead to an unexpected collapse of the system (i.e. separation and divorce). One element of 'relationship ecology is also a developed sensitivity for violence in its varied forms, through speech, the distribution of the chances for life through structures and, last but not least, also through male violence against girls and women.
2.2 Weaknesses of Contemporary Family Culture
Present-day family culture also suffers from disadvantages. The following should be pointed out:
In the course of growing de-institutionalization and destandardization, todays societies take away social relief services from married couples. Married couples can no longer be sure that their relationship wont be infringed upon by others. Fidelity is no longer enforced by institutions, but rather its left to the discretion of the persons involved. And present-day norms are hardly helpful, since when they are applied in various situations, a person living alone can barely resist.
Another heavy burden on the family is how the family is subject to the world of acquisition. This corresponds to a sub-order of life to (dead) goods In our culture, the production of goods is more important than the reproduction of life. This order of precedence is even reflected in the remuneration of certain occupations. For example, occupations dealing with living matter are paid far less than those dealing with production of material goods. It is especially the women, whom we find in the 'living occupations in elementary schools, in kindergartens, nursing occupations, tending to the sick, the elderly and the dying. In most present-day societies, the family is underrated since it is a space for life.
The second main burden on the family is related to the above, i.e., the absence of fathers, with all its serious consequences. They are so involved with their jobs outside of the home that they can just about provide the family income, but cannot give themselves to the family affairs (4).
Family life, therefore, takes place without the father. This puts too heavy a burden on the women, who, as they are more and more educated, also want to be present in the world of business, outside of the domestic life. Children are being deprived of vital confrontation with their fathers.
Lastly, aside from their professional competence, it also deprives fathers of the chance to develop capabilities to live within the family, looking and taking care of others, appreciating the vital things of life, and taking time out from the world of 'success, and learning considerateness for the weak......Is it true that men without children become barbaric?..(Hartmut von Hentig , a prominent German pedagogue suggests this)
2.3 Family Politics
The church can either overlook these hindrances to family life or react. This obliges her, however, to be aware of social matters and to 'interfere for the sake of families. Individual spiritual and pastoral services in the family are not enough. Family politics are needed. For this the church needs expertise and the capacity to participate in the formation of political life without tying itself to one particular party. Parishes can become more politically oriented. This involvement will be an expression of their diaconal services locally. The parishes are being supported by ...........
This lobbying in favour of families when the church, remaining politically independent, articulates its position regarding family politics and then asks the politicians to sit down at a 'round table.
2.4 Family Pastoral
The other aspect of pastoral services relating to family life can be expressed in a more restricted sense in family pastoral. There are many already proven models for this:
The interweaving of families is very helpful, in family groups or in basic ecclesial communities. Special attention is being given to the groups of 'Marriage Encounter, through which many families receive strong support.
Lets not overlook the fact that today, many parish communities are already supporting state institutions by their qualified involvement in child care and child education (for example, in the parish kindergarten, but also through work for children and youth organized by the church).
Positive also are the efforts to create a 'domestic church, i.e., church encounters not only take place within the church but also within family homes. This is a tradition of the early church, which is gaining importance in the 'post-christian era. There, families pray and read the Bible together. They celebrate Holy Mass together. They help each other in their various needs and thus they form a network of help from family to family.
Family pastoral also includes Mass being celebrated within the family. They take into consideration the necessities of families with small and growing children and the times holy Mass is celebrated, is organized in accordance with this. But the way holy Mass is celebrated needs special attention too. Sometimes adults and children are separated for the Liturgy of the Word. And for the Offertory both groups meet and celebrate the Holy Eucharist together.
It would be wise to work on development of Christian Family Culture for the future.The issues are: How should Sunday be organized? How is prayer life in the family? How can the inherited richness of Catholic 'sacramentalia be brought back into families?......yearly blessing of homes, search for dwelling during advent, Christmas crib, Easter Customs etc. How do families learn to cope again competently with the sick and the dying? In German-speaking areas, so-called 'home books (Noystors, Schmitt..) have been written, regarding everyday family life, death and dying. They have reached an unexpectedly large circulation. There is a great need for good experiences.
3. FAMILIES IN CRISES
The Holy Bible tells us that God has an eye and an ear for human need and suffering. "I have witnessed the afflictions of my people...have heard their cry of complaint...", so we read in the founding of Isreal (Ex 3:7). Jesus continues on this path to embrace the poor and the suffering in all its implications. He says, "It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick." (Mt 9:12) in body and soul. Therefore, the church has been founded to help particularly those who are in need or who cannot cope with founding a family and keeping it alive.
3.1.Family Counselling
In order to carry out this mission, the church has built-up excellent counselling services, collaborating with outstanding experts in social work and psychology, these are for marriage and families in crises, and educational counselling for men and women in conflict and in cases of unwanted pregnancies. One area, which is at the developmental stage, covers divorce and separation mediation. From their spirituality, the church can work out better alternatives to the state projects, because the latter, lack spirituality.
3.2 Family Deaconry
These counselling services are an integral part of the serving love of the church for families, i.e., family deaconry. This involves other duties too. Today, large families, with many children, and even more so those with one sole provider, are almost always notoriously overburdened as far as education and finances are concerned. The church has close ties to these families and works with them in order to find ways to lessen their burdens.
3.3 Separations
Life becomes particularly critical for all concerned, adults, children and even the elderly when a family breaks up. Both death and family break-up deeply upset family life.When compared to staying and enduring, separation often appears to be the lesser of two evils. That is why, according to canon law, the church acknowledges the concept of separation from 'bed and board.
As St. Paul says, God has intended us and he calls us all "to peace"(1 Cor 7:15c). But how is it possible for all concerned to live again a life of peace after separation?
(a) In a few cases, through the separation, the partnership passes from death to life, and the relationship is resurrected.
(b) Others learn to live alone. That is when they learn that living alone with children is very difficult today and only with the strong backing of the environmen will they be able to succeed and avoid the perils of over-burdenment and poverty. For this reason, in many areas, the church helps to set up self-help groups for single-parent families. The vitality of Christian organizations comes to light when they show their ability to reintegrate divorcees into everyday life. Pope John Paul II, therefore, demands such help from parishes and their shepherds
Learning how to cope alone can also be regarded temporarily on behalf of the community as a time for maturing. It is not rare, that after having separated for a while, a couple come together again, this time however, with more profundity. Therefore, the resurrection of dead relationships do come to pass.
3.4 Divorced and Remarried
(c)The church is faced with a problem, having to deal with the mounting numbers of church members, who, after having been divorced, remarry in civil ceremonies, without previously having obtained an annulment of their first marriage.
Here, lets not forget, that the number of invalid marriages is much higher than that of the annulled ones. Often the church does not have the required witnesses for the proceedings. "Inforo interno" a proven church practice can be helpful in solving individual cases.
Unfortunately, the question of divorce and remarriage is usually only being touched when dicussing whether one can receive the sacraments or not. While this, of course, is important, there is another question which is just as important,i.e., can a person, after divorce, concretely live with dignity in our society? This question is not as important in those societies where there is a network of welfare services for single person families, (singles before marriage, widowed or separated) but moreover in our highly modern individualized societies, without such a social service network. In order to live and survive with dignity in our cool and anonymous societies, we need a "roof over the soul" more than ever before.Obviously this can be a religious family organization which integrates a person after divorce. It is much easier to adhere to Jesus law, not to remarry after a divorce, if such family organizations exist (Gerhard Lohfink, Rudolf Pesch). But arent these family organizations within the parish community, which serve as a save-all net the exception rather than the rule? Is it asking too much of the individual if we, on behalf of the church, demand that the individual live alone without offering him such family organizations? This would only be following the Gospel. Such an organization would make such living possible in the first place.
4. EVALUATION OF THE FAMILY
Let me conclude with a theological thought about the family, the biblical evaluation of marriage and the family.
On the one hand the Bible espouses magnificent scriptural texts about the love between a man and woman. Family partnership is viewed as a gift of God to mankind after the expulsion from Paradise.
On the other hand, Jesus tells us that in heaven, there wont be anymore marriages. It therefore wont be necessary to bind the often excessive forces unleashed by love into the bonds of marriage and the family. In times to come, all will be the redeemed within the Family of God.
The early christian communities had the firm conviction, inherited from Jesus, that traces of this future heaven, can already be lived in the present. Therefore, they lived in communities, not based on natural bonds but rather on mutual affiliation to the all-encompassing Family of God. "He who is married"...(1 Cor 7:29-32). We encounter this adjustment of civil marriage and family again when they conflict with life in the newly-formed family organizations in the community. This could happen especially in "mixed marriages". In such cases, St. Paul decides for the dissolution of the civil partnership in favour of the community (1Cor 7:10-15).
One of the valuable effects of living within the Family of God in the community is its celibate life style, which is one of the features of religious orders. But basically, the word "celibate" is weak and negative. It could be replaced with living in "trans-family" community life or, even stronger, living together, "like after the resurrection."
This evaluation of marriage and family is not meant in a derogatory sense, nor has it anything to do with monastic contempt of human sexuality. It could rather be helpful to marriage and family life. Because most people, who decide in favour of a civil family suffer from its permanent overburdening. This evaluation could ease the burdens and make it more livable. If, in addition, a civil family is tied into the network of a religious family organization in the parish it may broaden the lives of some family units, which are often too narrow. And, last but not least, should a person, for whatever reason, and after careful deliberation and good counselling, want to leave a civil family, he or she will always find a place within the religious family organization. He or she would not be confronted with the serious problems so many widowed, separated, and abandoned and divorced people face, i.e., their fight for survival. Therefore, the best contribution to family pastoral is the creation of a network of overlapping family organizations in a christian parish community.
MARY AND THE FAMILY
Sacred Scripture and Tradition, already in the beginning, along with the Saviour of the world, emphasize one Woman, whose silhouette with time shows through ever more strongly and clearly (cf Gen 3:15, Is 7:14, Mi 5:2-3) until she becomes completely identified with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ (cf Mt 1:22-23). Her son is the descendant of the human race, who crushed the head of the Serpent - Satan, and is at the same time "Emmanuel" - "God with us" (cf Mt 1:23).
Of all the Marian qualities - considered biblically - it is her motherhood that is the most emphasized, the richest in content, and the most decisive in significance. Through it Mary entered into the most intimate bond with God in Christ in the way that is at all possible to a creature.
In the eternal Divine decree that God unite himself most intimately with all mankind and through it with all other creatures, the decree was also included that the Son of God would become man in the bosom of the Woman (cf Gal 4:4). The incarnation of the Son of God had to extend the possibility for all men to obtain a share in the Divine nature in such a way that every man becomes a member of the body of Christ. It is a dimension of that incarnation that all men are invited to participate in divinization because salvation in history had to be accomplished only through men. For this it is essential to have a share in the humanity of Christ and to participate in the further progressive incarnation of the (mystical) body. A share in the living body of Christ also includes participation in its realization and growth. Participation of the individual members as necessary bearers of salvation shows the incomparable and irreplaceable role of Mary. She, by her motherhood, stands in a vital relationship with the physical and the mystical body of Christ, which is composed of Christ and actual men. "The motherhood of Mary is shown precisely as the greatest and the most real participation in Christs humanity and as the greatest participation of a member in His redemptive work" (1).
By power of Jesus motherhood, Mary has become the mother of all men, especially of the faithful. The principle which through a causal connection bonds all men interpersonally and with Mary is the law of solidarity in the mystical body of Christ. (cf 1 Cor 12:26 and Col 1:24)
What one member in it does and merits, touches all the others. But that which one member receives "becomes anew in the body itself a source of strength for the others with whom he is in solidarity. That is valid only properly and originally for Mary so that to her, who in an authentic manner received the origin of life, belongs spiritual motherhood for all the members of the Church"(2). However, this motherhood "in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows the power"(3), of the unique mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ who gave himself up as the ransom for all (cf 1 Tim 2:5-6). Christs mediation has a universal but not exclusive significance. It does not exclude but rather includes the mediation of Mary and of the other members of the mystical body of Christ. "It is a characteristic of Christs grace of redemption that it elevates men to participation in the God-mans nature and in the work of redemption"(4). Marys role is not over and above Christs and independent of Him, but rather with Him and dependent upon Him. Mary, in the fullest sense, is the "Mother of Divine grace". It is a special characteristic of the grace of Marys divine motherhood with which Christ endowed her that in Mary it has become her merit. In that merit Christ crowns His own merit and grace.
The Nature of Marys Motherhood
Sacred Scripture does not insist so much on Marys physical motherhood because the essence and greatness of her divine motherhood does not consist in it. Mary is blessed because she believed (cf Lk 1:45), and not so much because in her womb she bore the Son of God and nursed Him with her breasts (cf Lk 11:27-28). She became the mother of God in the fullest sense with the help of faith and by it she conceived the Son of God. Nor could it have been any other way, because the Word of God, which was addressed to Mary, is the revelation of a personal God in so far as He wishes to bestow Himself upon men. The Word itself comprises the revelation and it cannot be received in any other way than by faith. God is revealing Himself and Mary responds to that. Her answer is a perfect, all-embracing act of faith: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to your word"(Lk 1:38). It is a complete surrender to God, who in Christ has revealed Himself perfectly. "To receive Him is the uniquely proper mission of Mary"(5) and "she received Him with her heart and with her body"(6).
Marys motherhood is not her private thing. Christ offered salvation to all men and Mary received Him for herself and for the whole world, because she was the first to do so and, at the same time, the representative of the human race. On her "yes", which echoes through all eternity, our salvation is built (7). It "is the door through which the Eternal Word of the Father came into the world in order that" God "would draw this world forever into His very own life"(8). Mary by her own motherhood is "at once and beforehand drawn into this immense, incomprehensible, terribly great drama which is unfolding between the eternal God and this world with its human race (9). Marys grace of motherhood is a grace for the human race and "really identical" with the grace that God is giving to all men and whose temporal-individual effects evolve until the "Parousia" (10). Thus Marys motherhood is taken into the history of faith and of salvation. It neither is nor should it be understood as "merely physical . . but rather as a free-personal act of faith in the history of salvation"(11). Therefore, her motherhood is linked to the salvation of all men. To be sure, it proceeds only from Christ, but it came to men through Mary. Standing at the origin of the Incarnation of the Son of God, she was and she remains the mediatrix of everything that follows from it. That is also the same thing as being the mediatrix of all graces. Marys intermediary role in the work of salvation is not finished and exhausted with the birth of the Saviour and with fidelity to Him right up to the cross. Her motherhood is immanent to the Church and is a "here and now actual reality"(12). It is a "saving office which is sustained until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect"(13). There is no grace nor salvation that would not bear Marys brand mark or that would not depend upon her. Marys share in salvation is grace, but grace which through her motherhood has become her own possession and then, only according to that, the personal possession of other men. For that reason, the salvation of the whole world is of a Christo-Mariological nature.
Marys Motherhood and the Family
The grace which Christ gives Mary is intended for the whole Church. The same grace that made Mary a pure virgin and a fertile mother also makes the Church the same thing. Precisely "in Mary is shown what the Church, the grace, the redemption and the salvation of God means (14). She is the revelation and the proof of that which will devolve upon the Church. "What Mary has must also in essence be ours"(15). But it is that already also now, even though invisibly, incompletely and imperfectly.
The Mary-Church relationship includes the Mary-family relationship, because the Church is Gods family, and the Church is a family. Marys ministerial causality of salvation is also related to the family like a sacrament of grace and salvation. This grace, in a definite sense, is Marys. Because of the complexity and the highly experiential nature of Marys relationships it is not possible to express them all at once, much less in one word. Therefore when speaking about the relationship of Marys grace and the grace of the sacrament of marriage, one must not forget that Marys grace, in the first place her divine motherhood, blossomed in the Holy Family and that therefore it carries within itself a family character and power. It sprung up from the family and according to that model creates living and authentic copies in the Church and in families. Marys "motherhood was...the greatest participation in the humanity of Christ that one can imagine, the greatest blessing in grace and the greatest redemption, and every blessing in grace and redemption, according to the model of her motherhood, has by analogy a motherly character toward Christ, toward the fatherhood of God"(16).
A mother is the family value. A family is the place where Mary became the Immaculate Conception, the mother of Gods Son and the mother of all men. God Himself came first of all into a family, and through it into the whole world. He began the dialogue with men in a family and He also received the answer to his own Word in a family. It was the answer of a woman who had a husband. In her response is included the response of all those who are being saved and in it becomes effective. Therefore, a real response to God bears in itself a family character. Theologically it is very relevant that Marys role in the salvation of the human race is bonded with the family. In the family the encounter and the true relationship between God and man is ultimately and fully realized. Its biological side and plane have a saving dimension.
The Holy family is the realization of the most intimate and the most sublime relations between God and man. It is at the same time the grace and the effect of grace through the perfect human response. The nature of this grace is that it bestows itself on all men and that it achieves its own effects in all. Every family is not only an image but also a special realization as well as a contemporary expression of the Holy Family. That is valid both for the general Church and for the individual family. Christian marriage is the mystery of Christ and the Church. It is the concretization of Christs love for the church and equally a sign of the supernatural reality, the mystical human - divine marriage. It is first of all and most perfectly realized in the Holy Family. Therefore, it is the cause, the prototype, the model and perfection of every family. Because the former exists the latter also exists. Because the former is holy the latter also must be holy. Mary is present as a Mother in both because both of them are one, even though they were realized in a different, individual way.
Gods invitation to Mary to be the mother of Gods Son did not exclude marriage, but rather presupposed and needed it. Marys Son had to be the Son of David by Marys marriage with Davids offspring, Joseph (17). As a human child he had a right to the warmth of a family, a fathers care, and to protection during the immaturity of childhood. Hence Marys bond with Joseph belongs to her vocation to motherhood (18). Her Child, who was a true man even though He was also God, required it. Thus both conjugal and parental love were in a conscious service to the Holy Spirit for the sake of the Child.
Marys marriage was perfect, even though there was no carnal consummation between Mary and Joseph. God himself perfected it by divine intervention and in that way brought it to perfection, and conjugal love to complete fruitfulness. The nature of Marys divine motherhood, to which everything was subordinate, excluded the role of a husband in the generation. On account of redemption and its fully undeserved nature the participation of a man was excluded. Therefore, Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. And this "conception was completely an event of grace out of her faith."(19). Mary became the mother of Gods Word by faith as personal and complete surrender to God. The nature of Gods Word and its saving character reduces the human in incarnation to acceptance by faith. Thats why it is necessary that Mary be both virgin and mother. That which bonds the one and the other is unconditional surrender to God in unconditional, personal, obedient faith. The grace of her virginity is "an interior radiation, the consequence of her invitation to divine motherhood"(20). Marys virginity was fused with motherhood and grew together with it out of the complete surrender and the placing of oneself at the disposal of Gods will which was made evident in words and in life: "I am the handmaid of the Lord."
The virgin-birth of Christ is neither a disparagement nor a condemnation of earthly fatherhood, but rather a proof and demonstration that it is all a pure gift of Christ, the work of a gracious God. Christ is not from the interior strength of the world. Neither does he originate from consecrated human love but only from above. "The world, its conditions, its demands or its immanent possibilities do not offer" any reason "that God descend into history"(21). And because Christ "is not from the world but from above, Mary is therefore a virgin"(22). The greatness and the complete undeservedness of the gift had to be revealed in the spirit and the body of Mary. Her single mission in life was to be the mother of God, created for grace and open to it.
At first it might seem that Marys virginity and maternity are incompatible and mutually exclusive. In reality, they stipulate each other in such a way that divine motherhood by its own interior power and supernatural logic presupposes virginity as a necessary component. In Sacred Scripture there are no clear proofs for Augustines opinion that Mary made a vow of virginity, and then, after she found a like-minded man in St. Joseph, decided on a virginal marriage. To Marys interrogation about divine motherhood, "How can this be since I do not know man?"(Lk 1:34), this meaning on the basis of Hebrew-Aramaic can also be given, 'How can this be since I do not want to know man? So, on the basis of biblical data about Mary, it could also be different than what Augustine thinks. The fullness of grace that Mary possessed enabled her to be perfectly at the disposal of God. Without any special revelation she decided on marriage also like other Hebrew young girls, thinking that this was really the will of God. The general persuasion helped her to see the value of marriage and her call and therefore she accepted in profound conviction that in this way she will fulfil the will of God in the best way. In this point of view there is found, generally speaking, a confirmation of marriage and of sexuality.
On the other hand, the nature of salvation and of divine motherhood demands that this motherhood be virginal. Nevertheless, virginity does not diminish the honor and dignity of marriage, to which fruitfulness is consecrated by the sacrament of Christ. Mary by her virginity confirms to both the married and the unmarried that every man must be ready for and open to grace from on high, and that every other good thing, even though it might, like marriage, be lawful, is second-rate because salvation is, after all, still a pure gift from on high.
Mary and Joseph were really husband and wife. Therefore, their marriage was an authentic marriage with all the consequences that follow from such a marriage. Mary nourished a full personal love towards her husband, except that this love for him in a soul, preserved from every sin, was completely in the line of a total surrender to God. Her conjugal love could not be separated from her love for God, and that because of the fullness of the grace that she had within her. "Conjugal love and complete abandonment to God could for the Holy Family create a real unity, be completely identical, to an extent that was nowhere else possible" (23).
Surrender to God can be indirect, as in marriage or direct, outside of marriage. Surrender to God has to be in common to them. If marriage and celibacy were to exclude this, they would both be equal in negativity. All men do not have the same charism (cf 1 Cor 7:7). Wherever one more easily surrenders to God, to that place he is invited. Mary could fully surrender herself to God in marriage because she was full of grace. Loving God perfectly, she also loved her husband perfectly. Thus, by her personal surrender to God in a profound and personal faith, she is a model for the married and the unmarried. Every love of ones betrothed must be transparent with the love of God. Marys love for her betrothed was in this sense "even more transparent than what is possible with the rest of men, even of the redeemed" (24).
Complete surrender to God in ordinary circumstances leads to celibacy. From that it does not follow that marriage is by religion lower. Sexual non-activity is not ethically worth more than the married life, nor with regard to belonging to the mystical body of Christ is it more unworthy to be married than unmarried. The difference is only that the married are indirectly surrendered to God and the unmarried are directly surrendered to God. The married man is divided and therefore diminishes surrender to God. It is the nature of love that it excludes bigamy and adultery. The reason is psychological and not sexual. Complete surrender to God excludes surrender to man (cf Mt. 19:12-19; 1 Cor 7:32-34). Mary, by her own mission, is so surrendered to God in Christ that it was not possible to have any other bond and support. Therefore, Matthew says: "the mother and her child"(cf Mt 2:11). Marys complete surrender to God was the reason that she remained a virgin even after giving birth.
According to all that has been said, the marriage of the Holy Family is not some exception but the most sublime marriage which, at the same time, can be characterized as eschatological. People, namely, at the resurrection will no longer in the earthly sense either marry or be given in marriage, but only know and love one another. The essence of marriage will thereby be perfectly realized, because God, who is love (cf 1 John 4:8), will be all in all (cf 1 Cor 15:28). This reality was already present in Marys marriage. Ordinary Christian marriage goes through bodily fulfillment and human generation. But it also must always be open to an ever greater fulfillment through God, and not artificially abandon its own rightful way (25). As the child of their marriage, Christ consecrated the marriage of Mary and Joseph and perfected it, making perfect relations for them between God and man.
Mother and Mothers
In the program of the incarnation of the Son of God the incorporation of men into the mystical body of Christ is also included. Marys motherhood as the realization of the incarnation includes the motherhood of all mothers. Her motherhood is not only the model but also the cause of all motherhood here on earth. Because of this, every motherhood has a dimension of grace. Its purpose is to provide for Christ the definite members without which He would not come to His fullness. Accordingly all motherhood is oriented toward Christ and it is in no way exhausted by its biological value. All mothers are mothers by Marys motherhood, which originated from Mary but is personally accepted and in a particular way is realized in every mother. The children that Jesus calls his brothers and sisters have with Him the same mother, who is present in all mothers. They originate from the mysterious will of God, by which He wanted His Son to become a man in the midst of many brothers and sisters.
The same mystery which began in Mary is continued in the hearts of the faithful, especially of mothers: "the birthing and the growth of Christ, who is conceived by the Holy Spirit"(26). Mary "is in the body of Christ a kind of hereditary factor, in the biological sense of the word (that which from within directs the development of the course of life). All further activity gets its form and function from it. She is the living organ that manages the direction of this course of life which God established among men by the very creation of man" (27). Mary is a presence everywhere in the Church, living and active.
All motherhood is in its essence an attitude towards Christ. In Mary it is direct and with others it is indirect. Marys motherhood is pure grace and a pure act of God. The role of a husband is excluded and Marys role is being directed to acceptance. The redeemer is not the fruit of human effort but the gift of God. The parallelism and interior bond between Marys motherhood and all other motherhood still exists.The difference is enormous, but it is the same God at work, only in a different way. Every motherhood is a gift of God. No human being creates children. God Himself creates them. With Mary human activity is excluded and with others it is included. The difference in manner does not touch the basic truth that every motherhood is Gods gift. Mary is the radiant example of consent to that gift and of personal responsibility for it. Answering affirmatively to the message of the angel, "Mary is at the pinnacle of her role"(28).
The family is a divine institution in which everything is a gift. That is especially evident in the Holy Family. The gift is Mary, Joseph and the Child. The whole structure is for the sake of the Child. Joseph takes the Childs mother to himself as a wife. Mary, taken by surprise, consents to Gods plan of motherhood. From the annunciation on, she puts herself at the complete service of her Son. Her consent, as an expression of faith, is at the same time a program of life and an attitude toward God. From the first moment of conception even to the death on the cross, she follows God in the darkness of faith, setting her footsteps in Christs: the journey to Egypt, the birth in a stable, the presentation in the temple, concern for the safety of her Sons life, and her dying along with Him beneath the cross. Every step of Marys went through faith up to her Assumption into glory. From Nazareth to Golgotha never did she come out "of the darkness of faith"(29). The way of this mother is the rightful way on which every mother and every man must universally be found. Marys motherhood originated by faith, and developed and grew by it. It is a gift and cooperation with a gift, a gift that includes development through human freedom. It is not given all at once but what is given is given to develop to the end. "The Bible is not acquainted with an all-knowing Mary, for whom her Son would no longer be any kind of mystery, but rather a faithful disciple of her own Son who in faith allowed herself to be led from station to station" (30).
Marys motherhood is also present in Christian mothers. The structure is the same, even if in Mary it is more intense, in conformity with her fullness of grace. The physical-biological dimension is not the most essential dimension, but the spiritual dimension of faith. "Still more blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Lk 8:21). The bearing of children as members of Christ presupposes that those who bear them "listen to the word of God and obey it"(Lk 8:21) and only then do they, in the proper and full sense of the word, become "mothers"(Mk 3:35) of Christ. Motherhood is rooted in faith and must be directed by it. It has to accept it and in it always be open to God. Accordingly, marriage and motherhood are for the sake of Christ. To Him they are consecrated, by Him they are directed, and by Him they are finished. Every marriage and motherhood is a service to Christ in the obedience of faith.
Motherhood is not a single action, especially not physical, but rather a process of grace. Like faith, it is a fruitful action and impels toward Christ being formed in others. "It spreads about itself the strength of faith and love into the heart of another man. That way the birth of Christ also takes place there"(31). According to Mary and along with Mary, there still remain places and duties for each mother to do what "is most exceptionally valuable for Mary" (32) to give life "serving" like Mary "the mystery of redemption" (33). All mothers, like Mary too, must accept Gods Word in the darkness of faith and by faith enter into Christs saving action. Such participation is significant for the whole communion of saints. Marys is the first and the most significant. The others must follow after her and continue her work. Marys "yes" to become mother to the Son of God is at the same time a consent to the way of life and the mission of Her Son. His work is to reveal the Father. In this Mary stands completely at His disposal. She increasingly died to herself and became the handmaid to her Son in His mission. She takes the Word of God, keeps it in her heart, meditates on it, lives and acts according to it, always open to God. The same motherhood, with the same commitment, is giving birth in Christian mothers. The intensity of the motherhood of Christ does not in this regard imply any kind of essential differences. The differences come only from the degree of grace, the complexions and possibilities which are adapted specially to every mother. Human motherhood has a saving dimension. Parents generate their children by faith, love and hope. Faith is that heritage in which is accepted the God who revealed Himself in Christ and is handed on to others (cf 1 Tim 1:5). Motherhood is the natural order and development of grace. According to its own nature it is "a relation of person to person"(34) in the first place to God in Christ (cfr Mt 25:40).
Every birth of a child is full of promise, even if the child proceeds out of the mysterious will of God, which for people is something exceedingly obscure. Christs incarnation illuminates and consecrates human generation. It makes us proud and grateful that we belong to the human race (35). The stable gives testimony that in hovels, rural huts, city basements and shacks, Gods miracles and gifts are showered down in the form of children which Marys Son made His own brothers and sisters, the children of the one same Father, God, and of the one same mother, Mary.
Marys family shows that not even the most perfect structure is by itself its own pinnacle. The events in the temple of Jerusalem, Cana, and beneath the cross especially confirm that. Everything in the family is for the sake of Christ. The essence of both the family and of marriage is the dissemination of Christs love and the divinization of the world with Christ and in Christ.
The sublime gift of motherhood respects and affirms the person. God does not treat people like dumb and inanimate objects but in harmony with their rational and free personal nature. He neither degrades Mary nor other mothers to the level of an inanimate instrument, but with a personal word seeks a personal response. Motherhood has the nature and structure of faith and its saving effect is from that (cf 1 Tim 2:15).
Mary by her Immaculate Conception affirms the holiness of the marriage act. She was pure although born of parents, in a human way. Consequently, marriage acts have nothing unclean in themselves. The existence of man in the family is "holy, an event that God wants"(36). The joining of man and woman is not a curse but Gods creative act. Only the pains at birth belong to Adams curse.
The Sacrament of the Ordinary
The family framework is the proper ambience and favorable climate that makes the full development and flourishing of a woman possible. The battle for emancipation is not always a battle on behalf of woman. Mary lived modestly, humbly, unrecognized and unknown. It shows that everyday ordinary, poor women do not diminish the freedom, dignity, and elevation of women in general. Mary, living in completely humble and poor surroundings, came through them to be "elevated above the angels". "One true human being", lived in this world, "a man of flesh and blood, of tears, pain, misery, and obscurity", but who nevertheless was "nothing else than purity, goodness, love of the cross, a man who was only Gods. . ."(37). All that splendor was hidden in the completely banal, everyday ordinariness of the common man, like those we meet on dusty roads, on spacious steppes, and scarcely reachable mountains. Mary is the proof that it is still possible "in this life of obscurity, weakness, misery, ignorance, weariness, and tears to be a human being that loves God and whom God loves, a child of God, a person who lives by the life of the Spirit"(38).
Nothing is known about Mary from her birth to the angels invitation. This silence about her "is more eloquent than any speech"(39). This and that little which the church has preserved about Mary speak clearly that her life was completely ordinary. Completely ordinary on the surface, completely spiritual in reality. Totally human and totally divine. An obvious proof that the commonplace and ordinary in the family is consecrated. The everyday ordinary has become a real sacrament, a format for the supernatural, and its sign. Everything is reduced to and transformed into the service of God in faith and love.
Mary is not some abstract concept but a someone, some definite, living woman in definite, miserable, human circumstances, and concrete relationships of person, woman, and mother. This reality is true proof that "the source of happiness is not in the possession of the goods of this world but in the acceptance of Gods will" (40). The narrow track of family life: poverty, anxiety, struggle, hatred, persecution, tears, and pain are not in themselves a sign of malediction but can be a source of salvation, if they are received from the hand of God with the words and the life: "Let it be done unto me according to your word"(Lk 1:38). Renunciation, purity, and work have value. The ups and downs in family such as were also in Marys: with her husband, with her own conscience, with the child, with a dwelling place, and with the world, show how human struggle and Gods care are mutually interwoven, and how Gods grace, care and omnipotence flow through human struggle.
Mary also is a witness that the fruits of marriage are not the final plunder of death. In Mary that which awaits every member of the family is visible, how its realization is salvation, and of what nature is its final form. Marys assumption into glory teaches that mans ultimate goal is God. Therefore, both making a fetish of the body and contempt of the body are unjustifiable. Celebration is an authentic human possibility after Christs resurrection. In Mary it is already a part of the reality that is already realized in Christ (41). Mary by her assumption into glory impedes us from permanently remaining on the ground floor in this world and from abandoning total happiness for the sake of a little piece of happiness. On the contrary, she leads us on to integrate the pieces into the totality.
Mary is the revelation, the sign, and the proof of what has to befall man. She is the sign that the resurrection of the Head draws with itself also the resurrection of the Body. In Mary, because of her family relationships, has begun the perfection of the final state of the Church. Therefore the church with justification sees in her its own final image which it hopes for with Christ. Mary is the Summa Ecclesiae, according to which salvation comes to the whole world in the form that is called family.
Footnotes
1) Mysterium salutis, Band 111/2 Einsiedeln Zürich Köln,1969: Alois Müller, Marias Stellung und Mitwirkung im Christusereignis, 416.
2)Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 2 Aufl. Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, Teil1,Freiburg/ Basel-Wien, 1967: Dr.Otho Semmelroth, Kommentar 8. Kapitel Lumen gentium, 337.
3)Lumen gentium, n.60
4)Semmelroth, 337.
5)Müller, 416.
6)Lumen gentium, n.53
7)Cmp. Karl Rahner, Maria Mutter des Herrn, Theologische Betrachtungen, Freiburg-Basel- Wien, 5. Aufl. 1965, pp. 104-105.
8)Rahner, 58
9) Rahner, 54
10)Müller, 437.
11)Rahner, 54.
12)Semmelroth, 337.
13)Lumen gentium, n.62
14)Rahner, 34.
15)Rahner, 37.
16)Müller, 417.
17)Cmp. Müller, 416.
18)Cmp. Müller, 416.
19)Müller, 416.
20)Rahner, 36.
21)Rahner, 67.
22)Rahner, 68.
23)Müller, 471.
24)Müller, 471.
25)Cmp. Müller, 472/473
26)Lumen gentium, n .65.
27)Rene Laurentin, Mutter Jesu-Mutter der Menshen (originally La Vierge au Concil, 1965, Paris) Limburg, 1967, p. 175.
28)Müller, 451.
29)Müller, 486.
30)Müller, 463.
31)R. Laurentin, 18.
32)Lumen gentium, n.56.
33)Lumen gentium, n. 56.
34)R. Laurentin, 171.
35)Cmp. Jean Cantinat, C.M., Marie dans la Bible, Lyon/Paris, 1963, p. 131
36)Rahner, 40.
37)Rahner, 81.
38)Rahner, 81.
39)Bossuet, Elevations sur les Mysteres, ed. D. de Bouvier, 1933, p. 692.
40)J. Cantenat, 128.
41)Cmp. Rahner, 91.
THE FAMILY IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
I. INTRODUCTION
The family, as the basic nucleus of a nation and society, has its own specific development, its own interior constitution and its own dynamism and life. It is subject to the different changes through history and to the pathologies of its members, particularly in our times, when materialism has taken its toll on humanity, when values have become shallow and we are becoming increasingly atheistic. In the family, we love, generate new life, live and die. The family is the bearer of life, and the transmitter of the cultural, religious and spiritual inheritance. Within it there is a substratus of religion, culture and history, which it carries on to the future generations. Even though the family is subjected to the different influences and changes, it has managed to remain a nucleus of intimate and valuable interpersonal communication.
In this short discourse, we will touch upon the subject of marriage and the family in general and of the healthy development of families, with a special reference to children and young people as the future bearers of family and societal life. We will also deal with the pathologies of contemporary families, presenting some examples from medical, psychiatric and pastoral practices.
II. ABOUT THE FAMILY AND MARRIAGE
The family is the basic societal unit. It is based on a communal life of persons linked together emotionally and through blood relationships, most commonly consisting of parents and children but also including grandparents, aunts and uncles etc. as part of the extended family. Within the family, biological-reproductive, educational, economic, sociological, cultural, moral, religious and domestic functions are united. The family is the bearer of life, as it has been throughout the centuries and millenniums, and thus has a long history and tradition. It is founded upon love and marriage. Love is the corner-stone of a communal life in marriage, and lasting marital togetherness is a condition precedent for family happiness and the realisation of responsible parenthood. In marriage and with the family, human beings fulfil their basic needs framework: emotional, sexual, material, societal, spiritual, reproductive and cultural. Other institutions, such as kindergartens, schools, hospitals, or homes for the elderly can neither replace nor make up for the warmth of a family home. The biological-reproductive and educational functions of the family are essentially important as new members of the human community are born and begin the process of their human development and growth within it.
In this intimate human environment, the first sensoral observations take place, the first notions about life and the world present themselves, the first impressions and attitudes are formed and relations are reinstated. The first value criteria about what is good, what is moral, true, human, holy, etc., are accepted and the identity of the person is formed. Only parents and family members can offer so much understanding, patience, empathy, unselfish renouncing, help and support to their members, especially to children and young people. Because of this, throughout history, the educational function of the family has been its uncircumventable role. In the present times of general alienation, emotional isolation, feelings of loneliness and abandonment, the family has remained the nucleus of the community, imbued with the warmth of togetherness and an atmosphere of trust. It has remained the center of support with the much needed aspects of interpersonal contact.
What is indispensible in marriage and in the family is the existence of that altruistic love which gives of itself for others, which requires effort, exertion, forgiveness and mutuality. This love is in a state of constant change. Every day it is different. It enhances the diversity of character and the developmental and biological condition of each family member. In this unit, new family members are born, which is important not only for the family, but also for society and humanity in general. We are speaking here about human reproduction of new generations and of society without which every other reproduction loses its meaning.
III. PATHOLOGIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY FAMILY
The conditions and the tempo influencing the individual and the family of today have changed considerably, especially in developed countries. Over the last few decades, attitudes towards life, towards the world, and what that world has to offer, have undeniably changed in public opinion. Often, what the world has to offer is but a falsification of life. Family closeness has weakened, both parents work and are nearly completely independent. Increasingly common in the parents of today are attitudes of self-invertedness, and a longing for leisure and ease with less responsibilities and burdens, commonly associated with having and educating more children. The giving of oneself, which cannot be without sacrifice, seems to be fading away in this materialistic world and sometimes converges with the freedom-loving liberal stance towards sexuality and the rejection of the parental role in the name of 'modern emancipation'. At the root of all this is a lack of trust and belief in a living God, a lack of keeping company with Him in prayer, in His Spirit, and a rejection of living by the Commandments, which He gave man in order to protect him as an individual, as a family and as a nation.
Because we are often influenced by science, which does not always serve mankind and life in general, and by media and world politics, the identity of future families, future nations and future faith is at risk. This is why so many families today live in emptiness without that essential connection with the fount of life that is God. Therefore, they suffer from a so-called 'internal-existential-spiritual emptiness', that is, 'senselessness.' These attitudes form parents and family members into individuals who are less and less joyful and altruistic and, at the same time, increasingly dissatisfied with themselves. They easily decide for abortion of a conceived child. They educate their children and young people without any set meaning or value of life, and resort to defenses with artificial compensations, such as pleasures, alcohol, immorality and drugs which only lead to mental and physical illness, social failure and the destruction of marital and family communities.
IV. SOME ASPECTS OF A HEALTHY FAMILY DEVELOPMENT WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
In order for a human being to be formed into a healthy person, someone who is a beneficial member of society, creatively responsible for his respective role in the family or at the workplace, the family and parents, in particular, have an irreplaceable function in his growth, education and development. Persons from the extended family and others are also significant, as is the milieu in which the person grows up. For this reason, it is important to initiate a healthy development of the child from the time of conception and birth so as to avoid pathological conditions, which threaten children, adolescents and new generations of society. We will demonstrate this in the following discourse.
Here we will examine only one significant aspect in the development of the person: his identity, and the consequences of irregularities on that component of the mental faculty. We are refering to different types of identities: personal, family, national, religious and sexual types of identity. These faculties of the human person are formed through the psycho-social and the psycho-sexual phases of a persons development and continue to become more defined as his life unfolds.
Freud, in his structural theory, divided the mental faculty into three parts: first, the underlying layer, the 'Id', the unconscious part, the storehouse of impulses and instincts, where mental energy is contained. These impulses crave to be satisfied 'here and now' under different intensities, while the higher faculties of the identity 'ego and super ego' are in opposition. The second level, 'the ego' or 'the I', has the function of control, self-control and prevention of uncontrolled impulsive yearnings, which if expressed, would cause fear. This level examines reality, enables the individual to adapt to situations, sets up boundaries towards the outside world and develops defense mechanisms. This function, in particularl, forms the true identity of the person and gives him knowledge of himself and of his surroundings.
The third level is the 'super-ego', which has the function of stronger self-control and moral censure, and unites within itself moral and social norms. This faculty begins to evolve already when the child is three months old. Already at that stage, a child in diapers sets up its first emotional-objective relationships with his parents or with those who care for him (primary objects). Even at that stage, the child smiles, recognizes a person seen previously and responds with movement. At this level, children form according to the example of their parents and those with whom they are in contact. For children, those are recognizable ideals and paragons with which they identify, namely, they more permanently adopt some of the characteristics and qualities, which they see and desire in others, as their own. In this way, from very early on, the initial formation of emotional, social, moral, religious, sexual and other characteristics is established.
Parents and others around the child can be ideals or models of good or bad characteristics, which the child adopts, because the child is already able to discern the atmosphere, which the family emanates: whether it is warm and relaxed, how the parents communicate, whether they have time for the child or not, whether the mother is over-burdened and frustrated, whether the father is warm or aggressive, whether he comes home drunk or not, how the family settles conflicts, whether they apologize or not, whether they get along, if they are tolerant, what is the priority of values within the home and whether they are lived or not; whether they speak well of God or whether they curse Him, whether they go to Church or not and whether they keep promises.
Although other institutions can complement, build on, and enhance knowledge, the fundamental mental matrix, the identity of the child, who is the future bearer of life in society, is formed within ones own home and family.
V. PATHOLOGICAL FORMS OF DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE FAMILY OF TODAY, WITH SOME CASE EXAMPLES
Because of changes in living patterns and in public opinion, because of the negative influence of the media and the leadership of atheistic politics from their "centers of power" and because of alienation in interpersonal relationships, irregularities within the family are very common today. Such irregularities trigger off pathological changes in children and adolescents; but it is the children of today, who will be called to undertake the responsibilities and obligations of the older generations tomorrow.
Whether, at the instant of conception, the child was desired or not and whether there had been a contemplation of abortion are important factors. A child in its mothers womb feels this very clearly. Subsequently, this unwantedness can lead to mental trauma with tendencies towards depression, invertedness, mistrust and psychopathic destructive behaviour. Disturbances in the breast-feeding stage such as: rough neglect of children by parents, especially by the mother, a constant presence of tension or unrest in the family, emotional coldness or disinterest for the mental and physical needs of the child -- especially for their needs of sincere love, warmth, security and trust -- will have a negative effect on the healthy mental development of a person. To this type of mental pain, which a child cannot verbalize, it will react with a range of psychosomatic disturbances, by which it attracts attention to itself.
As a result, a secondary neurosis can emerge when a child is cared for by more than one person (discontinuity of the object), in cases of prolonged separation of a child from its parents (when parents are abroad, in hospitals, or when a child is reared by grandparents), and where there has been a loss of one parent without the supplementation of real love by others. These can be reasons for subsequent separational traumas at the age of puberty and adolescence, when the child emerges into the world of adults and is not able to meet the demands made on him according to his age. This type of upbringing, results in emotional injury and damage to a persons character with tendencies to withdraw into oneself and to mistrust, to become self-centered and to develop an insatiable hunger for the love and approval of others without the ability of returning what he receives. Such individuals have not built up normal mental defenses and in situations of stress and frustration they have a greater tendency towards regressive patterns of behaviour (e.g. depression, lack of initiative, lapses at school, insubordination to parents and authority, and a tendency to join groups, which make an impression on them on the streets or at school - inducing them to alcohol, drugs and promiscuity). In this way, the growth and development of the individual in an unhealthy family atmosphere, creates a false identity, a pseudo-identity, which is dangerous territory where deeper deviations and socio-psychological pathologies develop. Thus, the young people from todays contemporary families become the bearers of the pathologies of those same families.
It is especially unfavorable when children are born to, and raised by, marginal, mentally-ill parents with undesirable patterns of social behaviour. It is equally damaging for a child to be brought up, in a 'glass house', distanced from work ethics, responsibilities and frustrations with an unhealthy bonding to the parents. This is very widespread today and renders normal developmental preparation for life impossible. Such children become like little 'gods' within the family.
It is also a problem when a child becomes the object of aggression of the parents, a target where they settle their marital and professional problems; or when the career, the building of the house, or accumulation of wealth is more important to the parents than the creating of warmth, trust, love and support for their own child. In this way, their investment in their childs upbringing is mimimal. As a result, a child is left on his own, is educated on the streets, by different groups, at discos and by magazines and televison. There are more and more children and adolescents reared in contemporary families where there is a constant disorder in the family life, a lack of real love and support, and where the parents are not available for the child or are divorced. Divorce is particularly traumatic for children and many of them end up with a depressive autistic image in paediatric psychiatry.
Parents and families, who lead a life without the faith in a living God, without practicing faith in daily life, without daily family prayer and with indifference towards God - thus, becoming more and more atheistic - are the cause for the meaninglessness of life in which todays family is immersed. This loss of meaning confronts todays adolescents, who wander and search for something to fill their emptiness. For this reason, it is not rare for young people to join sects, practise occultism, use drugs, alcohol and the like.
If the best fruit tree in the orchard is not cultivated and pruned, it will bear no fruit. Likewise, if a person's development is left open to chance and coincidence, it will be fruitless. That is why it is so important for parental love to be secure and unconditional and that a parent is a friend to the child, understands and supports it. When the child fails to behave optimally, it is important that the parents spend extra time with that child in its education, in conversation, in recreation and in answering its questions. Material gifts can never replace the warmth, closeness and parental love, which a child requires. Children recognize such gifts as counterfeit. It is necessary to praise the child often, to support it, to keep promises and, as early as the third year, to entrust it with little jobs and thus to develop its work habits and a feeling of responsibility.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this short discourse on the contemporary family we can assert that - inspite of rapid scientific progress and the range of changes in its interior dynamics, its organization and its life, in the face of world opinion and amidst increasing alienation between people - the family has remained an oasis of warmth, support and love, of engagement and of close intimate interpersonal relations, and a bearer of new life. Todays family is confronted with many modern provocations from science, politics, media, atheism and indifference towards God and an increasing materialistic saturation. That is why such families often live empty and meaningless lives today. In this manner, they raise the future bearers of family and societal life, which seduce them to various abnormal and injurious compensations and behaviors, which, in turn, threaten the very foundation of contemporary and future family and society. It is precisely for this reason, that we have had a closer look at normal and abnormal growth and development of children and adolescents with accompanying pathological consequences, which psychotherapists encounter daily in their profession.
Those families that believe in God have proven to be more stable and resistant to the negative provocations of the world. In order to prevent the problems outlined above and to ensure a healthy development of children, adolescents and the family, we must have professional counseling centers for children, adolescents and parents (psycho-therapy). We also need educational programs in the media and to counsel parents, children and teachers through seminars and discourses. We need personal contact and appropriate education at school.
The family must take great care in giving priority to values and to recognize that -- from the moment of conception and as an infant -- the child is already a person who requires love, trust, attention and support. Parents must realize that a child is a gift from God, and that thanks and praise are due to the Creator and the Giver of life for it. The role of the Church in the family is irreplaceable and primary, it is fundamental in helping the family to live the faith in daily life, gathering children, adolescents and parents in the parish community, in liturgy and prayer. This is essential in order to gain supernatural graces and a true religious identity, which will help the individual to overcome the different crises and frustrations of life and to live a higher quality of life with a living God.
LITERATURE
Frankl V.: "Lijeènik i dua", Kræanska sadanjost, Zagreb,1990
Kecmanoviæ, Ceriæ, Markoviæ, Loga: "Psihijatrija", Medicinska knjiga, Beograd-Zagreb,1980
Gruden Zdenka i Vladimir: "Dijete kola,roditelj", Zagreb,1992
Gruden Z.: "Psihoterapijska pedagogija", Medicinska naklada, Zagreb,1992
Shulte-Tolle: "Psychiatrie", Springer Verlag, Berlin,1979
Vukasoviæ A: "Zov roðenih ognjita", Kuæiæe br.1,1995
THE FAMILY IN THE MESSAGES OF OUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE
1. Medjugorje is a school, in which Mary, the Queen of Peace, has been speaking, and thus teaching us for fifteen and a half years already. Through Maria Pavlovic Lunetti, She has given simple messages on every Thursday from March 1, 1984 to January 8, 1987. From January 25, 1987 up until the present, the message has been given on the 25th of every month. She does not tell us anything new, but, in a motherly way, full of understanding and love, of gentleness and patience, She clearly and decidedly reminds us of that which we, as Her children, as individuals, as families and as the entire Church are obliged to do.
She speaks simply and concretely, without theorizing or philosophizing, exactly as every Mother should. Mary, the Queen of Peace, is clear in what She is seeking and demanding of us. Her messages do not require exceptional explanations. They are understandable to everyone. There is no misunderstanding or lack of clarity in them.
On the one hand, Her messages have a deep link with the Biblical messages, while on the other, they show a deep link with our everyday reality. So as to more easily recognize this deep link of Our Ladys messages with the Biblical messages and our everyday life, it is enough to recall Her main message given on June 26, 1981: "Peace, peace and only peace." To this She added the prophetic words: "Pray and fast, because with prayer and fasting you can stop wars and natural disasters". Back in 1981, the reality of war for us Catholic Croatians was unthinkable. Yet, ten years later, in 1991, on the same date of the 26th of June, the first bombs fell announcing the terrible reality of the war which we neither desired nor expected and which we all hoped would not be of such proportions.
The main goal of the apparitions is 'peace' and it is continually woven like a golden thread through everything that Our Lady says and does. That is why She also spoke of the conditions for peace: prayer, fasting, faith, complete abandonment to God and remaining with Her on the road to holiness. She has also clearly spoken about the means to attain it: the prayer of the rosary, confession, reading of the Scriptures, attending Holy Mass and good works.
Individuals, families, groups, the entire Church and the whole world are equally invited and called by name. In the entire process of peace, Mary continually stresses the importance of the individual, the family and of the prayer group. Her way to peace is inductive. It all begins with the individual who changes and, in changing, creates new relationships in the family, in the society, in the Church and in the world. Everything begins with the personal conversion of an individual, which then first of all creates new relationships in the family before going further.
The visionaries tirelessly repeat that, first of all, peace must reign in our own hearts, then in the families and only then in the world. In this we see the indispensable and uncircumventable value and importance of the individual. Without the individual, the plans which God entrusted to Mary are unnattainable. The individual creates a new nucleus, a new family, and the new family creates a new Church and a new society. The new society, the new Church and the new family, renewed by the renewal of the individual, in turn, have their role in educating and making it easier for the individual to create his or her own identity.
The task of this presentation is to concentrate on what Mary is saying about families: what type of a family She desires; what She is recommending and what She is warning us all about as parents, as children and as the elderly. It also includes what values She asks us to live by and how we are to behave towards each other, towards God, towards prayer, the Holy Mass and the Holy Scripture.
2. In 27 messages, Our Lady mentions the family. Of those, 13 were given on Thursdays and the other 14 were given on the 25th of the month. What She has said can be presented either chronologically or thematically. I have decided for the latter.
God in the First Place
God is the foundation of everything, the fount of life and holiness, the Creator and the Sustainer of everything. He is peace and love. Without a personal contact with Him no one can have peace. He gives us everything we have and everything belongs to Him. In a devoted family, God is found in the first place and He must govern the life of the family. To decide for God and to put Him in first place means to do what Mary did and to live as the Holy family of Nazareth lived. In the message of December 25, 1991, Our Lady says, "Therefore, dear children, put God in the first place in your families so that He may give you peace and may protect you not only from war, but also in peace protect you from every satanic attack." Mary speaks clearly about satans continual and tireless activities both during a time of war and of peace. He does not tolerate anything good, "because Satan wants war, wants lack of peace, wants to destroy all which is good" (March 25, 1993). In that same message, She invites us to prayer three times "pray, pray, pray". This is the answer to the question of how we are to be close to Her motherly heart.
"I have come to tell you that God exists", was of one Her first messages, which the visionaries transmitted to the world. Later, in many messages, She invited both individuals and families to decide for God and to put Him in the first place.
That is how it was in completeness during Her entire life. She called Herself the handmaid of the Lord who fulfilled the will of God in everything. God was in the first place in Her thoughts, in Her words and in Her actions.
In the message of June 2, 1984, in which She asks us to pray a novena for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the families, She invites all of us to let our entire lives on this earth be a glorification of God. She tells us that God Himself will give us the necessary gifts for this to take place (June 2, 1984). St. Paul teaches us in the first letter to the Corinthians: "So whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do for one another do so for the glory of God" (1Cor 10:31).
Everything She tells us She does so in the name of God. Mary is a Prophet and the Queen of the Prophets. A prophet is one who speaks in the name of God. Therefore, the words of a prophet do not primarily pertain to future events, but to speaking in the name of God. For this reason, every mother and father is, foremost, a prophet who reveals the will of God, Gods love and mercy, Gods plans and the means through which these plans are realized to their children. To Her, God entrusted plans which can only be realized in cooperation with us: "You have helped me along by your prayers to realize my plans. Keep on praying that my plans be completely realized" (Sept. 27, 1984). She teaches us that everything needs to belong to God, and we can realize that through Her hands (Oct 25,1988).
It is when we put God in the first place, that we will have peace and can be secure from every satanic attack. When we have God, we will truly have everything, Without Him, we are miserable and lost, we do not even know whose side we are on. The decision for God and the placing of God in the first place will make our lives and all of our actions completely clear and orderly (December 25,1991).
The family and, in this case, the parents are those who transmit the experience of God to their children. When they put God in the first place, then there will be love between them, they will serve life and guide their children onto the right path. For this reason, Mary invites us to encourage the youngest to "prayer and that children go to Holy Mass" (March 7, 1985). Only in this way will the children learn that what their parents live. When children discover God, and He enters into their life also and takes the first place, they will remain on the way of peace, faith and love.
In the message of August 25, 1996, Our Lady invites parents to instruct their children because if they are not a model for them, they will fall into godlessness and that means into darkness, unrest and into death.
Mary did not forget the aged in the family either. They are important and need to be encouraged to pray and, by their exemplary lives, the young must become a help to everyone so that they may thus bear witness to Jesus (April 24, 1986). This type of relationship between the young and the old, and the importance of the aged in the family, one can discover only in one's encounter with God. In the rhythm of the contemporary world, both the children and the elderly are regarded as a bother and a hinderance to the enjoyment of life. In this type of a relationship, abortion, the murder of the young and the rejection of the elderly to the point of euthanasia, becomes justifiable. A change in this attitude can only be expected if everyone decides for God, who is the Creator of all and Who gives deep meaning to each life jeopardized by a materialistic attitude towards it. For this reason on March 25, 1995, Mary says that there is no peace only where there is no prayer, and that there is no love where there is no faith. Peace is born in the encounter with God, in the love and trust in Him and in the complete abandonment to Him. God gives peace, and peace is Gods gift (January 25,1996).
When God is in the first place in the families, then prayer has its proper place and time and this will make it possible to seek and to find the will of God (April 25, 1996).
Prayer in the family
The most frequent call directed to the families is for the family to pray. In the message of June 2, 1984, Our Lady invites us to pray the novena to the Holy Spirit, so that He may be poured out on the families and on the entire parish. This desire of Our Lady reminds us of Her own experience of praying with the apostles for nine days after Jesuss ascension. Jesus sent the Spirit, the Protector, just as He promised. The hearts of the apostles and Marys own heart were filled with strength and zeal with the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is through the descent of the Holy Spirit that the apostles became competent to witness what they had seen and heard. (Acts1:13-14 and 2:1-4). It is sufficient to recall the gifts of the Holy Spirit - wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety and the fear of God - in order to understand why the family needs to pray together to the Holy Spirit, and why, now in particular, we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The family is, in itself, a community of faith and love, of hope and mutual respect, attentive to the needs of each other in a material, spiritual or psychological sense. Man is educated for the family and is formed in the family. Without the family, normal growth of man is unthinkable. Nowhere else as in the family, are the gifts of understanding, counsel, wisdom, knowledge, strength, piety and the fear of the Lord, as necessary. Everything can be in order only when the hearts are full of, and when they are constantly being filling with, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
This message of Our Lady is an answer to all parents who are asking themselves what else they can do for their families which are in a crisis. To pray to the Holy Spirit means to invoke the same Spirit who gives life and creates life, who transforms emptiness and waste into the fullness and life (Genesis1:2). To pray to Him means to pray to the Holy Spirit whom Isaiah saw at work when the bones of the dead came to life (Ezek 37:1-14).
In as much as the Holy Spirit is at work in the family, is how much He will form individuals into new persons. That is the extent to which man will have the strength within him to overcome the darkness with the divine light, to tramsform the wasteland of the heart and soul into a richness of unity and love, and to supply for the lack of love with the eternal love, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. By the strength of that same Spirit, the wounds of the heart, inflicted by the lack of that same love, will be healed. In the message of March 28, 1985, Mary is thankful to all those who have started to pray in their families and to each person who has become active in this way, telling us that we have become dear to Her heart.
Praying the Rosary in the Family and Ttime Spent in Prayer
On Sept. 27, 1984, Our Lady saiys, "I request the families of the parish to pray the family rosary". The prayer of the rosary is, in itself, a uniting with Mary and Jesus in Their joys, Their sorrow and Their glory. In this union, the family grows with the Holy Family as its model. Each person, as an individual, every family and each community seeks their model and their ideal. As the rosary is prayed in the family, the adults praying with the children, the old with the young, the healthy with the sick, they have before them the exemplary lives of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. To live this concrete union as a family with them means to have a new daily inspiration for mutual love and respect for the children as well as the parents. This is how one learns to live joy, to carry the cross and the pain in the family and comes to experience the resurrection. In the message of November 1984, Our Lady tells us that a family needs to put prayer in the first place and must not permit work and everyday obligations to suffocate the spirit of prayer. In that same message, She invites us to a renewal of prayer because work had suffocated prayer completely.
Only when we come to know the situation in most of our families as far as prayer is concerned, do we understand why Our Lady stresses that prayer needs to be put in the first place. Is prayer not in the last place in the majority of the families, if it has not disappeared altogether? How many families pray only when all the daily obligations are finished, when everyone is exhausted and can barely do anything else other than watch TV? The true response is to begin the day by praying together, but most families believe this to be practically impossible. Because of late TV viewing, the morning time is lost in the family. A lost morning is often a lost day, and an unrealized encounter in the morning disables other encounters during the day. In accordance with the deepest nature of man and family unity, there would be nothing more natural and normal than morning and evening prayer together. In the message of August 25,1995, Mary invites the family to begin its day with prayer, and to finish with the evening prayer which needs to be a prayer of thanksgiving. Therefore, the content of the morning and evening prayer is clearly set. In the morning the family decides individually and communally for God and His holy will, decides to pray that in every man we may meet God and that in everything we do we fulfill His will. In the morning prayer, we need to consciously and thankfully accept the new day as a great gift and place ourselves at the disposition of God and mankind.
In the evening prayer, we must express our thankfulness. Everything that we do during the day has been made possible in its entirety by the love of God. We must give thanks in the evening. Thanksgiving means to acknowledge that it is God who gave us the gifts. By thanking God, man struggles against pride and against the danger of attributing to himself the credit for what he has done. For gratitude belongs to God and to the others. This means to recognize Gods work in our life and in the lives of our families and to be completely conscious that it is a gift. Thanksgiving is the deepest expression of trust and faith in God. Whoever gives thanks acknowledges that everything good comes from God. In the same way, whoever is thankful can truly repent, because he can easily understand that he gambled away Gods gifts and followed his own will rather than the will of God.
The family that prays together in the morning and spends the day in love, in peace, in mutual respect and in successful work, will progress spiritually. With this spiritual progress, it will be able to live out all of the values which adorn a family. In the same way, it is important that at the end of a day a family reflects together over the events of the day, thanks God for the good and repents for what was wrong and sinful and that the family members forgive one another for any offenses and misunderstandings. These are the conditions for peace in the family and for a peaceful sleep. Whoever in the family goes for his night's rest, and has not made peace and forgiven cannot rest because a wounded soul cannot find rest for itself if it has not first come to a reconciliation and an acceptance of others with love.
To renew family prayer means to renew the meeting with the heavenly Father who loves us immeasurably through His Son, Jesus Christ. Drawn by the love of Christ, the family will, be able to understand and accept even the heaviest of crosses and sicknesses through prayer (January 25,1992). The crosses and the sicknesses will then bring forth great peace and togetherness.
To speak with the Heavenly Father means as much and much more than to speak with the earthly father in a family. A family that lacks open communication among its members, loses the foundation and the basic expression of its togetherness. Our Lady again, calls to a renewal of prayer in the message of March 7, 1985.
In the December 6, 1984 message, Our Lady repeats Her invitation to family prayer, and She reproaches us for not having listened. In that same message, She reminds us that She does everything because it is God who sends Her and She speaks to us in His name. Whoever does not listen to Her call does not listen to God who sends Mary in His name.
The problem of the parish community not listening to Mary is repeated in the message of February 14, 1985. This causes sadness in Marys heart and a repeated invitation that the families listen and must pray in the family. The expression 'must is very rare in Our Ladys messages in Medjugorje. Looked at from the perspective of methodology and education, this expression does not hamper the response with love nor does it bring Mary's patience into question. Instead it explains Her great desire to help families live in a real contact with God.
Love in the Family
To love and to be loved is the fundamental and the deepest desire of every man. We do not even need to discuss how important love and acceptance are in the family school of life. Lack of love and acceptance in the family leave deep scars. It is not unheard of that even the newly-conceived child feels and knows if it is accepted with love or not. It is known from therapeutic practice, that deep fears, which can follow a person throughout his entire life, are often caused prior to birth, if the father and mother contemplated abortion.
For this reason, Our Lady's message of December 13, 1984 is clear in itself. First of all, we must begin to love in the family, then we can speak about love in the parish community, and only then about love of all mankind. With this message, Our Lady wants to prepare the parish community for the acceptance of pilgrims: "Only then will you be able to love and accept all who are coming over here"(December 13,1984). Once again, in a concrete and motherly way, Mary asks that the week in which She gave this message, be taken as a special time when we need to learn to love. This, in fact, was the week before Christmas, the feast of love and life.
The beginning of the exercise in love takes place at that moment when we decide to exercise love in our own family. In that same message, Mary reiterates the thought of St. Paul, that nothing can be accomplished without love. Love supersedes all laws and fulfills them and, yet, all laws in the world cannot supersede love. Everything is valueless without love and love gives an eternal value to everything (1Cor 13:1-13).
Before the fourth anniversary on June 6, 1985, Mary repeats Her invitation to love those in our own homes first and then we will be able to love all those who come. From a chronological perspective, we can easily say that Medjugorje became an international shrine at then end of 1984 and even more so in 1985. The circumstances of Medjugorje at that time were, on one side, the communist pressures and attempts to put a stop to everything and, on the other side, the very aggressive moves against Medjugorje from the Bishops ordinariat at Mostar. At the end of October of that year, the then Mons. Pavao Zanic, published his semi-official pamphlet about Medjugorje. Sometimes it seemed that the opposing forces of the world and the Church would succeed in suffocating the events of Medjugorje. However, it is clearly visible how Our Lady was guiding everything and was not concerned at all about these attacks, but warned and educated the parish community about love which conquers all. On Christmas day itself in 1991, amidst a terrible flare-up of the war in Croatia and the first signs of the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Mary once again cautions about love and peace. Love is a grace that we have to pray for, and Mary brings Jesus so that He may bless us all with the blessing of peace and love.
In the message of April 1993, Mary uses the image of nature, which awakens in springtime and is renewed, and invites us all to open to love just as nature awakens and opens to God the Creator. The hearts that open to love as nature opens will, first of all, show and prove their love in the family. Love will save the families from unrest and hatred and will give them back the spirit of prayer. Through this prayer, God will give us the strength to love one another. Mary knows how important it is for us to understand this invitation to love and that we become active in the awakening of love. For this reason, She repeats that She loves us all with Her Motherly love. Motherly love is the condition of life in general. This love is especially active and is a condition for the birth of a new life. Without this love, life cannot begin nor continue to exist.
The consciousness of Gods love, which brings about new life within us, and the consciousness of Marys motherly love are again conditions for every man to decide for love and for every wounded love to become whole and healed. God revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ as immeasurable love, which accepts us unconditionally and which is the condition for every other love, especially in the family, because God has revealed Himself as Our Father.
Mary teaches us in the message of January 25, 1996, that love is the condition of peace in the family because he, who has no love, cannot live peace.
In the same message, Our Lady speaks of the link between love and forgiveness. We are weak. We sin and, in sinning, we imperil love. The love of someone who refuses to forgive is shallow and is conditioned by many different terms. Again, only he who loves can forgive. Only resigned prayer is left to us, so that we may be able to comprehend with our hearts and accept the invitation to love and forgiveness.
The Bible in the Family
The Sacred Scripture is the Word of God directed to mankind. An individual must read it and in this way, come to know God who reveals Himself, His will, His love, His mercy and His forgiveness. Mary desires that the Sacred Scripture be read in the family and that the family pray. Just as it is important for an individual to read the Sacred Scripture, in the same way, it is important for the family community to do so at all levels. He who reads the Sacred Scripture in the family and meditates on the Word of God will know how to pray and to witness, and a family that prays and meditates together will be a family united by the power of the Spirit of God.
The visionaries often repeat that we should read the Sacred Scripture at the beginning of the day, to take a word from it and meditate on it throughout the whole day.
In the message of August 25, 1996, Mary repeats that we should read and meditate on the Sacred Scripture, to pray and to live it. She desires that we put the Bible in a visible place in our family homes. In this way, practically speaking, the Bible, the Divine Word, would see us off when we leave for our daily work, calling us not to forget God and would be the first to greet us when we return home. If every member of the family looks at the Bible before leaving and sees it first of all upon his return, he will create a positive relationship with himself and others, towards his work, towards time and towards eternity.
This desire of Mary reminds us of that what each member of the people of God has done and that of what She too did. In the book of Deuteronomy (6:4-9), it is written, "Hear O Isreal! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! Therefore love Yahweh with all your hearts and all your souls and all your strength! Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the door-posts of your houses and on your gates." This is the prayer that each member of God's chosen people prayed four times daily and in this way, as an individual and as a family, was inevitably in contact with the Word of God.
Let us recall the words of St. Jerome: "Whoever is ignorant of the Scripture is ignorant of Christ."
The Family is Called to Holiness and Consecration
All those who are immersed in the death of Jesus Christ in baptism have died to sin and are called to holiness. In the Creed, we confess to the "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church", which is called to be holy and stainless. What pertains to the entire Church, a fortiori, pertains to all its members and families and a family is often referred to as a 'small church.'
Holiness is a call to a concrete life in love with God and our brethren. In itself it means first and foremost, the healing of our relationship with God and with others and a growth in love, faith and hope.
It is Marys desire that a family be the birthplace of holiness. The example of the holiness of the parents and the elderly will, in itself, be a school of holiness to the young. "I beseech you, by your own testimony help those who do not know how to live in holiness....but especiallly your own family"(July 25, 1986). Love and forgiveness, goodness and generosity, gentleness and resoluteness, the love of truth and moderation are an expression of and a school of love in the family. So that the family may reach holiness in accordance to the measure of Jesus and Mary, which is the measure of the Gospel, Mary calls us to individually, as a family and as a parish, consecrate ourselves to Her beloved Son, Jesus and to Her Immaculate heart, "...so that all belongs to God through my hands" (October 25, 1988). The latin expression for consecrate is 'con- sacrare', which directs us to the real meaning of the call to consecration. To consecrate means, to decide to take Mary and Jesus as the example, to be with them, to keep company with them, and to become like them in accordance with the logic of a national saying: "Tell me who you associate with, and Ill tell you who you are..". Whoever keeps company with Mary and Jesus in daily prayer, especially in the prayer of the Rosary, is in the best School of Holiness and will understand how he can live in joy and sorrow and the final glory in heaven.
Through consecration, a person consciously walks the way with Mary and Jesus and in this way overcomes that terrible loneliness which comes about through sin. He thus creates a new community of love and life and knows that he will conquer both sin and death.
The Destructive Plans of Satan
The Family must consecrate itself and in holiness defend itself against Satan and his destructive words. He sows the most dangerous seed of evil for the family - hatred and division. This is a cancerous wound, which kills the fundemental essence of human togetherness. On October 25, 1988, Our Lady says, "Satan is strong and, therefore, you little children by constant prayer, press tightly to my motherly heart". Mary is the woman in the Sacred Scripture who, with Her Child, conquers Satan (Gen 3:15 and Revelations12:1-6).
Bishop Milingo, a renowned exorcist, said in a conversation that Mary was the first exorcist. With Her Son, She will conquer Satan. Her Son is not only Jesus, but every one of us, and Her family is not only the family from Nazereth, but every family. Close to Her Motherly Heart, the individual and the family are protected from the works of destruction. In the message of January 25, 1994, once again She reveals Satan's works and intentions. "In this time Satan wants to create disorder in your hearts and in your families. Little children, do not give in. You must not permit that he leads you and your life." It is his wish, to exempt us from the power of Gods love and to govern with us, with our families, with our feelings and our decisions. There where he takes charge, only ruins remain. Mary, once again, shows Herself as the one who protects us with Her love and Her intercession before God. In so far as individuals and families do not accept Her help and protection, the door is opened to satan, who tempts so that in the smallest things, faith, hope and love are lost (March 25,1995).
Peace in the Family
Everything Mary said about families, all the advice She has given, all the motherly warnings, all invitations to abandonment to God and decisions for holiness, the invitations to love and forgiveness, lead to that main goal in accordance to which She has chosen Her name when She said: "I am the Queen of Peace."
Peace is the deepest yearning of every human heart. In whatever man does, be it good or bad, in some way, he seeks peace. When he kills another or takes his own life, he is seeking the way to peace just as he is when he gives his life for others. Peace is a Biblical value, which is realized only when the fullness of all good takes place: spiritual, psychological and physical.
In the end, peace is possible only where life is accepted, loved, respected and protected. That is why, once again, the family is either a place of peace, and thus, life or a place of destruction, and thus, of death. In the heart of Mary, - as the Queen of Peace and the new Eve, as the mother of all the living, - peace in the family is cherished.
For this reason, one of the main intentions of the prayer in the family is peace, which is especially threatened at this time. In addition to calling us to pray for peace, She invites us to fast. What will happen to the family and in the world depends in particular on prayer and fasting (July 25, 1991). At the time of the message of July 25, 1991, the storm of war had already flared up in Croatia. It is God who gives peace and defends from unrest and evil (December 25, 1992).
While God desires peace, because He is the fount of peace and through Mary invites us to fast and pray for peace, satan wants war, lack of peace, the destruction of all that is good in the heart, in the families and in the whole world (March 25,1993). Only with prayer can unrest and hatred be overcome and peace reign (April 25,1993).
In the Christmas message of 1994, Mary is the Mother who rejoices with us and prays with us for peace, for peace in our hearts, in our families, in our desires and in the whole world. She invokes the blessing of peace from the King of Peace, who alone can give peace. That is why we must finally come to understand that peace is Gods gift, which gives birth to love, as love does to peace (April 25,1996).
According to the visionaries, at the end of the apparition, Our Lady always says, "Go in peace, my angels!"
Visual Images About the Family
Just like Her Son, Mary uses images mainly from nature, so that She may more easily express what it is that She desires.
In the pre-Christmas message of December 20, 1984, She invites every family to bring a flower to Church and to place it beside the manger of the crib as an expression of abandonment to Jesus. In the message of May 1, 1996, She expresses Her desire for every family to become a harmonious flower, which She wishes to give to Jesus, and for every individual to be a petal of this flower in the realization of Gods plans. She gave this message at the beginning of May, a month full of flowers and of enchanting beauty in nature. In this image Mary expresses everything that She desires with our families and for family unity in general.
In April of 1993, She invites all of us to go into nature and to look at how nature is awakening so as to help us to open our hearts to God the Creator. Nature, which awakens from winter's sleep and awakens to a new life, is proof of the creative power of God and an inspiration to every heart and family, encouraging them to renewed hope and acceptance of life.
From the messages, it is clear to see where Mary is guiding the family and to what end She is educating it. Through Her protection and intercession, by the power of the spirit of God and the will of the Father, the family becomes a community of life, love and peace, a foretaste of heaven. It becomes the protection for the individual, and especially for children against a life without God.
Mary, the Mother of the family, and the Mother of the Church, cannot betray Her primary assignment, for by becoming the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of the Holy Family, She became the Mother of us all and the Mother of every family. Through Her intercession, God renews His 'small Church'. Wholehearted cooperation with Her gives birth to the ardently desired peace. Let it be so.
ACTIVITIES OF THE MEDJUGORJE "MIR" INFORMATION CENTRE
Introduction
This talk in no way intends to imply that the other Medjugorje Centres throughout the world do not deserve respect for their work. I merely wish to say that the MEDJUGORJE "MIR" INFORMATION CENTRE represents the official voice of the shrine of the Queen of Peace in Medjugorje. This gives it a certain status and a certain responsibility.
What the shrine intends can be seen through the work of this centre and how it deals with the problems of all. Its problems and success are not only its own, but also yours. Just as the problems and success of your centres are also not only yours but of everyone who works in the shrine. We are one community who have heard Gods Word and wish to spread it to the people around us.
We live in so-called "modern times". One of its fundamental characteristics is that it tries to categorize everything. We, who call ourselves Christians, must take a firm stand against this. Thereby, we shall not be less "modern", but rather breathe a soul into the world in which we are living. The characteristics of that soul will be peace, joy, openness, gentleness, and not busyness, alienation, selfishness.
Since we are true children of our times, we must utilise all the means that "these times" put at our disposal. Gods voice has a right to be heard through all available means of communication. Therefore, let us never drift with the wind. Let us rather create in ourselves an attitude of victory!
1. A Short Presentation of the Work of the MEDJUGORJE "MIR" INFORMATION CENTRE
This centre began its work in November 1993. Before that time this would have been impossible to undertake because of the communist reign of terror; later, after the fall of communism, it was also not possible because of the war the Serbs waged on all the other nations that had lived with them in the previously multinational state of Yugoslavia.
The work of this centre is constantly growing. Just as the "Queen of Peace" shrine is developing and becoming more organized, so also this Centre is growing and becoming better organized. In brief, the centres functions include: archives, bookshop, Information Office, Press Bulletin, provision of various kinds of services, robofax, Internet, radio, television, the 9825 automatic speaker, books and brochures, working together with the other centres in the world, the organization of courses for guides and for those who lead pilgrimages to Medjugorje.
It is possible to contact the centre by our e-mail address medjugorje-mir@st.tel.nr; by fax number +387-88-651-444; through the information office number +387-88-651-988; and,of course, in person when you are visiting Medjugorje.
2. Associate Members of the Association of Guides
While communists dominated the area of Medjugorje, just about anybody who wanted to could talk to pilgrims. After initially rejecting and imprisoning those who were saying that Our Lady is appearing in Medjugorje, the communists used a different tactic. They wanted to exploit it commercially and began to cater to the pilgrims as tourists, as they called them. For that purpose, an Association of Guides was set up to work with the agencies that brought in pilgrims. A member of that Association had to pass a state examination and after that was able to act as a guide for the pilgrims. Since some of the guides often gave incorrect information about Medjugorje and the events taking place here, the pilgrims were thus misinformed and not happy with the situation.
So that nothing like that would ever happen again, immediately after the fall of communism in 1991, the "Association of Guides for Pilgrims in the Parish of Medjugorje" was established. The founder of that Association is the Medjugorje Parish office. In the course of the war its work was suspended, but came back to life again when more pilgrims started arriving after the end of the war.
The prerequisites for becoming a regular member of this Association of Guides are: profession of the Catholic faith, exemplary behavior, completion of the course of instructions for new guides and passing of the exam, residence in the territory of either Croatia or Bosnia-Hercegovina, excellent command of the Croatian language plus one other language, regular attendance of the monthly meetings, and regular payment of membership dues. All this is prescribed by the statutes of the Association itself.
Besides the regular members there are also honorary members. Their work and advice has been of great help to the Association and they continue to assist it in various ways. They are, of course, not involved in the guiding of pilgrims.
Since there are many who do not live in the territory of Croatia or Bosnia-Hercegovina but bring pilgrims to Medjugorje and take care of them here, we have decided to set up so- called "associate members" of the Association of Guides. The prerequisites for becoming an associate member of the Association of Guides are: profession of the Catholic faith, exemplary behavior, regular attendance of the prayer-education seminars which are held once a year, regular payment of membership dues and registration at the Information Office upon arrival in Medjugorje. Knowledge of the Croatian language is desirable, but not a condition.
By establishing associate members of the Association of Guides, naturally we do not wish to say that all the work you have done so far was not done in an exemplary way. We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for everything which you have done for the pilgrims until now. God, of course, will certainly thank you in a different way.
It is the desire of all of us who work here in the sanctuary to be in closer contact with all of you. We would be glad to hear about your difficulties as well as your successes. We wish to share them with you. We believe that this is also what you want. Drop in for a visit either at the Parish office or at the Information office.
After this "associate membership" of the Association of Guides will have been organized, potential abuses will be reduced to a minimum. Unfortunately, it has happened and it still happens that individuals bring pilgrim groups to Medjugorje purely for financial gain. However, with the establishment of associate members their activities will be narrowed down.
The associate member of the Association of Guides will have a greater credibility with those who guide. Pilgrims will know that the shrine stands behind the associate member and, therefore, will trust him more.
The day is not far away, when only regular or associate members of the Association of Guides will be able to guide pilgrim groups in Medjugorje. All the rest will only be able to bring a group to Medjugorje and nothing else. This manner of operation is not unusual. It is used in all the shrines. If we had not lived under a communist regime and had had a normal government, all this would have been done a long time ago.
Both regular and associate members of the Association of Guides will have their own identity card. They will be obliged to wear it while performing their work with pilgrims in Medjugorje. Regular members will also have their own uniform which they will wear when meeting pilgrim groups and while they accompany them. Naturally, they will wear them on other occasions too, if that is suitable.
3. Uniqueness of the Members of the Association of Guides
The statutes of the Association of Guides for pilgrims in the parish of Medjugorje stipulate that was established for the purpose of providing services to pilgrims in the area of religious, cultural-historical, archeological and ethnographical life. The Association is also obliged to organize spiritual meetings and seminars on the themes of faith and life and to organize other activities for the purpose of spreading love and peace among people, regardless of their profession of faith, nationality, gender or race. The Association collaborates with domestic and foreign organizations of a similar type.
If we would want to simplify what has been said above, then one would have to say that the aim of all the activities of the Association is to animate the pilgrims coming to the shrine of the "Queen of Peace" in Medjugorje to live according to Our Ladys messages. This brings about the sought-after uniqueness of the members of the Association of Guides.
Whoever conducts pilgrims to Medjugorje or is their guide while they are in Medjugorje must first of all believe in the authenticity of Our Ladys apparitions. In this way he will more easily help others to come to that conviction and to begin to act according to Our Ladys messages.
A member of the Association of Guides will never consider the messages of Our Lady apart from the context of Catholic faith. Our Lady did not come to separate us from our Church, but rather to incarnate us still more fully into it. Therefore, all extremism and exclusivism is ruled out. A visit to Medjugorje is a visit to a place where one again enlivens and deepens ones faith.
Those who conduct pilgrims to Medjugorje would have to prepare them for the encounter with Our Lady and with the shrine. How pilgrims will experience their own coming will depend mostly on those who guide them. If in the course of their journey they will have given a good example, then those who started their pilgrimage as tourists will go back as pilgrims; however, if they will have given a bad example, then those who came as pilgrims may perhaps return as tourists!
All those leaders of pilgrimage groups who constantly only want to see something make a big mistake. They run from one visionary to another, from one priest to another. That way pilgrims do not have time to stop and pray so they could thereby have an encounter with their God. The pilgrimage then just turns into tourism. They likewise make a mistake when they promise their own pilgrims something special. Here in Medjugorje, all are welcome, but in the same manner.
The leader of a pilgrimage group is, in fact, a spiritual guide. The concept of a "spiritual guide" originated back in the time of the ancient church. After having spent a long time in prayer, individual Christians became competent to direct others on their way towards God. People came to them in order to be spiritually refreshed and fortified. Later on they began to join with one another and religious life came into being. Those who guide pilgrimage groups will most probably not go off into a religious order, but they should belong to a group of people who are being nourished by Gods Spirit mediated through Medjugorje. Such people will renew themselves and the world around them.
4. Why Have a Local Guide?
We who work at the shrine believe that every group of pilgrims should have a local guide. Of course, thereby we do not wish to push aside the associate members of the Association of Guides. If they are competent to adequately care for the pilgrims they have conducted here (often there are many of them), then we have no objection. However, should there be a large number of pilgrims, our local guides can assist in guiding.
The greatest advantage of a local guide is that he is continuously in the shrine. He is informed about all the events in the shrine and the Association. Anyone else who comes, no matter how often, can not be that well informed on all these events. Besides that, a local guide will more quickly and easily execute the myriad little details that have to be attended towhen one comes with a group of pilgrims to Medjugorje. This way those who bring a group to Medjugorje will be largely relieved of burdens and will not just conduct a group of people on pilgrimage, but will also themselves make a pilgrimage to their God.
The service of local guides can be obtained at the Information Office of the shrine. The shrine prepares them for that service and in a way vouches for them. They are paid a fixed amount for their services and you can inquire about it at the Information Office. This should neither surprise you nor disturb you. Even in Sacred Scripture it says that every worker deserves a wage. It is goes without saying that for guides salary is not the primary concern.
5. Internet
Once the history of passing from the second millennium to the third is documented, it will certainly have to say that this period was greatly influenced by the rapid development of computer science. Computers have simply overrun us and we meet them at every step.
Currently, one of the most interesting areas of computer technology is the Internet. It is a system of interconnected computers throughout the whole world. It is hard to say how many of these computers are currently linked up with each other. However, it is estimated that about 50 million people are currently using the Internet.
What does Internet offer us? All kinds of things. It is possible to find things in it that will ennoble ones soul, but also all which will unmercifully ravage it. Curled up in ones own comfortable armchair, one can read, watch and listen to pages and pages of diverse material. Even newspapers and encyclopedias are published on the Internet. Very little is required of us to take advantage of these services: a computer, a modem, a connection to the telephone line and registration with some provider of Internet service. In the near future all of this will become still more simplified. Already this fall, televisions were on the market with built-in access and search systems for Internet.
Besides pages filled to the brim with of every kind of information, called world wide web pages, there is an interesting part of the Internet called e-mail, electronic mail. In a second one can receive and send mail to the other end of the world. That mail can be made up of everything imaginable: characters, sketches, pictures, and sounds.
A third interesting part of Internet has been set up recently. With the help of a microphone and a computer, it is possible to telephone someone on the other side of the world. All one needs is a computer and the corresponding program. It is possible to take part in discussions with several people from different continents; one can also not only connect with any other computer, but also with any telephone anywhere in the world. That would be an extraordinary step forward to connecting all people throughout the world, since telephoning through Internet is exceptionally inexpensive.
In our centre we have been connected to the Internet already since February 1995. As we were the first to do so in our region, there were some definite difficulties and disconnections in the beginning, but now everything functions more or less well.
The information we are currently providing is available in seven languages; Croatian, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Polish. On the home page it is enough just to click with the mouse and all the contents will appear translated in one of the seven languages.
The pages we are providing are divided into different sections. The first section is called 'Basic Facts. In it are contained all the most important facts about the shrine and what takes place in it. 'Our Ladys Messages is the section wherein it is possible to find Marys most recent message, all of Her messages to the present and an introduction to the messages. The commentary on Our Ladys last message is changed on the 29th of every month. It is given by one of the priests who works in Medjugorje. The section called 'Testimonies gives persons an opportunity to tell their own experiences regarding Medjugorje. 'Documents represents a collection of various declarations, lectures and official documents with regard to the events in Medjugorje. The 'Press Bulletin is the official voice of the shrine. On the Internet one can find the latest issue, which comes out every second Wednesday, as well as all the issues so far and a short history of it. Many have visited Medjugorje and still many more would like to do so. 'The Region of Medjugorje section describes the essential features of Medjugorje and of the people who live there. 'Announcements are thought of as a bulletin board. It is constantly being supplemented and rearranged. We are aware that many books and newsletters have been written and that it is impossible to know about all of them. But those we have collected we present to you in the section called 'Literature. There are also others providing electronic pages about Medjugorje; we give you their addresses in the section called 'www addresses. To enable you to better visualize where you have come to, we have a section called 'Maps and Photographs. All the lectures we are holding here today and those we have held so far, are presented in the section 'Lectures from the Prayer-Education Seminars.
The work on the www pages is very demanding and consumes very much time. I do not know how satisfied you are with their appearance. What is important to us is not to give them some kind of extraordinary appearance, but rather to bring you as much information as possible about Medjugorje. The appearance is, therefore, secondary.
The Internet as a medium represents the future. There is no need to be afraid of it. For the time being it is like a great western metropolis in which it is possible to find a place for prayer, but also a place where you can abandon yourself to all the vices. But that does not mean it is not necessary to live there and try to change it. Some efforts have already borne fruit, so that even on the Internet some laws are beginning to apply.
6. Publicity
We live in a time of diverse means of communication. They have developed in these last 150 years. As Christians we must respond to the challenges they place before us.
The means of public communication create "public thinking". For that reason it is exceptionally important to know who stands behind them and what they want. To understand this demands of us great maturity, but isnt that what we are aiming at in our spiritual life?
It is time to engage in an "apostolate of the means of communication". It is lacking seriousness to leave this up to just anybody. Evil tries to take us away from this so that it alone has the right to speech. For that reason our programs are so full of violence, mockery of true love, and negativity. We must do everything to change this.
Only with great difficulty could we know with confidence how much we have succeeded. It is impossible to prove how many people have listened to us, how many people we have brought light, how many we have turned away from sin. We will only know that at the end of our times when we stand together before our Lord.
The characteristic of the times in which we live is secularisation and secularism. Secularisation we might accept while secularism we could in no way, since it denies us the right to our beliefs. While we move in such a world let us remember Jesus command that we go out to the whole world and preach the Gospel to all creation. Means of communication are welcome for that purpose.
Conclusion
We have all gathered together here because of the events in the parish of Medjugorje. If they had not happened, we would not be sitting here today. We all believe that these events are changing the world and bringing it the true spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. For that reason, we must constantly exert ourselves to make our voice heard on these events through all possible means of communication.
The foundation of our work should not be based on sensational events, but rather on prayer. Mary does not bring us sensationalism in Medjugorje. Here She is teaching us to pray. Knowing that, we must not fear for the success of our work. Prayer reaches further than all other means. Still, if we also have at our disposal the means to transmit prayer and our way of meditation to a large number of people in a brief interval of time; it would be unwise not to take advantage of them. Of course, in doing so we will not be aggressive. Only the one who is not sure of what he is offering is aggressive. We will be prudent, decisive and dignified.
THE POSITION OF MEDJUGORJE IN THE CHURCH
The position of Medjugorje in the Church is a difficult, disputed subject, an object of confusion and ambiguities, that is important to dissipate.
Among us, Medjugorje does not need any explanations. It is a place of grace where Our Lady has manifested Herself by all the exceptional fruits: spiritual life, conversions, healings. "The tree is judged by its fruits," says the Lord, and it is the only criterion of discernment that comes from Him (Mt 7:20; 12:33).
The Status of the Apparitions
There is, however, an ambiguity we should be well aware of. Apparitions, where faith becomes evident, where the invisible becomes visible, are a superficial and secondary phenomenon in comparison to the Gospel and the holy sacraments. Even where the Church recognizes an apparition (including Lourdes and Fatima, the most solemnly recognized), she does not employ her infallibility or even her authority, since it is not a question of a dogma, necessary for salvation and taught in the name of Christ, but of a discernment, only probable and conjectural. She does not say, "You have to believe" but, "There are some good reasons to believe. It is beneficial to believe."
The responsible authority itself can even add, "I believe"; but it does not impose this judgment under the penalty of sin. If I would not believe in Lourdes or in Fatima, I would not have to go to confession if I had reasons to doubt. It was in this spirit and with a completely open mind that I undertook my investigations about Lourdes.
Similarly, if authority says, "There are serious reasons not to believe," then it is wrong to believe. Our judgment is called upon to obey the Church, but permits freedom of examination and of discernment. In 1984-1985, when Bishop Zanic announced his negative verdict, I had prepared my conscience for this possibility, and I said to myself candidly something like, "In this case, I will stop writing or speaking publicly about Medjugorje, but like the friends of St. Joan of Arc, burned at the order of a bishop in 1431, I will deepen my knowledge about it and put down the reasons for revising such a judgment".
Respect for authority and obedience, from which we should never deviate, in this area occasionally allows for slight differences in the free service of the faith.
The Two Meanings of the Word "Church"
Concerning the word "Church", the last word of the topic that was assigned to me (The Place of Medjugorje in the Church ), another ambiguity must be be clarified:
Before the Council, for the majority of theologians, the Church was the hierachy: the Pope and the bishops.
Vatican Council II revised this conception. It restructured the Constitution of the Church inversely: the Church is, first of all, the people of God, among which certain faithful (equal to others before God in faith, hope, charity and in the search for holin ess) have authority in the name of Christ, but this authority is service of the people of God. That is why the Pope has given himself the title "Servant of the servants of God".
Now let us examine the place of Medjugorje in the Church according to these two complementary meanings of the word Church which signifies an organic reality: the mystical but visible Body of Christ.
1. THE RECEPTION BY THE PEOPLE OF GOD
At Medjugorje, as in other places, the faithful were the first to recognize the presence of the Virgin Mary in these apparitions.
The pastor, Fr. Jozo Zovko, a spiritual man, was first of all critical and demanded verification of the apparitions. He said to the parishioners, "What are you going to do on this hill, when you have the Eucharist in the Church?"
He brought them all back to the church for daily mass to where the apparitions were transferred. Quite soon he believed and a personal apparition of the Virgin confirmed his conviction.
Among Christians, however, there are opponents on the right and on the left.
- The Christian progressives prefer the negative critique, psychological and psycho-analytical explanations, systematic doubt and suspicion in the face of extraordinary phenomena.
- The traditionalist wing or moderate integrist, for example, Fidelity in the USA, or the extreme right of the Catholic Counter Reform (which excommunicated the Pope as heretical) were the most fierce adversaries of Medjugorje.
Pilgrims often ask the visionaries, "What should we do to be able to convince the opponents?"
Vicka answers, "Pray for them and be good. The Lord and the Holy Virgin will do the rest."
That was already the position of Bernadette, who did not involve herself in discussions with the opponents who wanted to dispute with her, but, if they insisted, answered simply, "I am charged to tell you. I am not charged to make you believe."
2. THE HIERARCHICAL CHURCH: THE BISHOPS AND THE POPE
The situation is more complex on the side of the authorities.
The Local Bishop
The local bishop, Msgr. Zanic, successor of the apostles and the one responsible for discernment in his diocese, was at first favorable during the summer of 1981 (although he does not want to remember it today). But the local conflict with the Franciscans (who make up 80% of the priests of his diocese) aggravated everything step by step. The time allotted here does not permit me to give the details of this problem. For that I refer you to my books.
When I went to Medjugorje for the first time at Christmas 1983, I believed that he was still favorable but he disillusioned me. I listened to him and did my best to note his objections, although they seemed to me quite external, partial and weak in comparison to the obvious facts, which got me involved in a difficult venture in respect to his episcopal authority. I went to see him as often as I could. He confirmed to me his radical opposition. At the end of the visit with him, I asked for his blessing. Once he found it difficult. I insisted, saying, "If I am a problem for you, give me the blessing for my conversion". To that he responded with his episcopal magnanimity, "Remain Laurentin"
His Official Position of October 30, 1984 against Medjugorje defamed me on several points in a surprising manner: I was supposed to have counselled him to hide the truth; I disqualified myself as a theologian; I was supposed to have done this for money; I had earned more than a billion!; I had succumbed to the charm of the visionaries of Medjugorje rather than to listen to the bishop. But he had never forbidden me to go to Medjugorje or asked me to stop writing.
I prepared myself to keep silence after the negative verdict, which he had publicly announced. But when he came to Rome in April 1986 to propose it, Cardinal Ratzinger told him (and Bishop Zanic, a man of clarity and of no duplicity, revealed it openly): "No, you are going to dissolve your diocesan commission. The verdict is transferred to the Bishops Conference."
This was unexpected; because, according to an old tradition, aggravated by Cardinal Ottaviani, who in 1959 and 1960 made the decisions against Sister Faustina (beatified today) and Mother Yvonne Aimée etc., the Holy Office generally supported bishops who were unfavorable towards apparitions and rather restrained favorable judgments. Here then it was reversed. One could ask why. I believe I have the explanation.
In July 1984 Pope John Paul II, into whose own hands I gave my first book, "Is The Virgin Mary Appearing at Medjugorje?" (February 1984), had read it in Castelgandolfo and had recommended it to Bishop Pio Belo Ricardo of Los Teques (Venezuela).
The following year, he also read "Scientific & Medical Studies on the Apparitions at Medjugorje", which I wrote together with Professor Joyeux from Montpellier.
Finally, I initiated an international meeting of doctors and theologians at Milan to establish ten scientific and ten theological conclusions concerning Medjugorje. Agreement was easily reached in one day of work, and these twenty conclusions were sent to John Paul II by Doctor Luigi Farina, the President of ARPA, where this meeting had taken place. The Pope sent all these documents to Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, who seems to have made this new decision after having conferred with John Paul II. It was an unprecedented decision. It took the bishops ordinary authority away from him without taking it away completely, since he would still be a member of the Yugoslav Bishops Conference, to which the judgment was transferred.
The result was a long journey. Cardinal Kuharic, with whom Vicka had an apparition (in his living room in 1983, as he told me ) was, it seemed to me, open and discretely favorable. In any case, he desired the bishops to peacefully take the responsibility for this important and fruitful place of pilgrimage instead of stirring up one of those conflicts around apparitions that create discomfort and divisions within the Church, which are detrimental to the faithful, the bishops, and God Himself.
But being prudent and respectful of Monsignor Zanic, the local bishop who is responsible before God and the parish of Medjugorje, Cardinal Kuharic rightly maintained a prominent place for him. Every time a question was addressed to the Bishops Conference, he was always the one to speak first. With his characteristic vigor Bishop Zanic repeated all the objections he had developed twice publicly and retained them:
- The Official Position on Medjugorje of October 30, 1984, dealt a blow to the further expansion of Medjugorje, since he invited all the bishops of the episcopal conferences of the world to support his negative position, suggesting that official pilgrimages (he underscored the "official") were not authorized.
- His severe sermon of July 25, 1987, against Medjugorje during the confirmation ceremony. He expected to see the parishioners revolt, but they silently listened to him with respect, in spite of the deep hurt they felt in their hearts. They gave proof of their heroic respect and obedience, but the bishop interpreted their reaction differently. During the dinner that followed, he concluded, "They dont believe so much any more today." The Franciscans disabused him (the sermon is published with my critical observations in Seven Years of Apparitions, pp 72-77).
After this first intervention of the local bishop, the other less informed bishops kept silence or supported him out of solidarity. The only one who pleaded for Medjugorje was Msgr. Franic, archbishop of Split, an authority in these matters, since he was president of the Yugoslav Bishops Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith. But he retired on September 10, 1988, and was no longer a member of the Bishops Conference thus leaving open terrain for Bishop Zanic.
Under these circumstances, I never came to know how Cardinal Kuharic was able in November 1990 to succeed through the Bishops Conference in obtaining the recognition of pilgrimage and its practice. It was done according to the directives and criteria published February 25, 1978 by Cardinal eper, (the predecessor of Cardinal Ratzinger at the Congregation of the Faith ). In the case of apparitions, if no serious objection presents itself and if the fruits are good, the bishop takes charge of pilgrimage in order to direct the piety of the faithful. After that, he can eventually, without haste and with the necessary caution, recognize the apparitions themselves. Unfortunately, Bishop Zanic accepted this recognition of pilgrimage (to which he was opposed) only on condition that several negative clauses be introduced. These minor restrictions made the text so obscure that the Cardinal and the Bishops Conference decided not to publish it , and to recognize it in action (as was done in Rome without a declaration for the recognition of Tre Fontane).
This is how Bishop Komarica, president of the Yugoslav Bishops Commission for the investigation of Medjugorje, came to Medjugorje to celebrate a mass of pilgrimage. He declared officially:
"I came not only in my own name but in the name of all the Yugoslav bishops, including Msgr. Zanic (the local bishop and the number one opponent). Other bishops will come..."
And other bishops followed, including Msgr. Zanic and his archbishop, the future Cardinal Puljic of Sarajevo.
Everything seemed to be going well. But on January 2, 1991 the text, kept secret because of its ambiguity, was published by the Italian News Agency ASCA (on the initiative of Msgr. Zanic, according to the Counter Reform which was very much behind him) with a radically negative commentary. This obscure text, published under savage conditions, created uncertainty and disarray with pilgrims on an international scale. They referred to Cardinal Kuharic, who replied:
"The Church is not in a hurry. We, the bishops, after three years of examination by the Commission, have declared Medjugorje a place of prayer and a Marian sanctuary. This means that WE ARE NOT OPPOSED to people coming on pilgrimage to Medjugorje to venerate the Mother of God there, in conformity with the teaching and faith of the universal Church.
As to the supernaturality of the apparitions, we have declared: UP TO THIS MOMENT WE CANNOT AFFIRM IT. WE LEAVE IT FOR LATER.. THE CHURCH IS NOT IN A HURRY." ( Declaration printed in Vecernji List, August 1993, Latest News 13, page 41). Several Croatian bishops spoke in the same way.
Overwhelmed with questions on an international level, Cardinal Kuharic took the time needed to arrive at a new version of the text , which was clearer and from which some negative ambivalences were absent.
The sense became clearer, in spite of the negative declarations circulated in the press. The Yugoslav bishops had to choose between two classic formulas of possible expressions of judgments since the authenticity of the apparitions were not recognized:
- Non patet supernaturalitas: The supernatural is not proved
- Patet non supernaturalitas: The non-supernatural character is proved.
The bishops chose, not the second formula which excluded the supernatural, but the first, which had an element of doubt: it was not yet possible to recognize the supernatural character, but without excluding it, as Cardinal Kuharic had clearly stated. It is a pity to see how the press and how certain priests or authorities continually confuse the prudent formula which suspends judgment and the formula which definitely excludes it. This confusion, which is frequent in such cases, has never ceased to revive at Medjugorje.
Another ambiguity: the word supernatural in similar circumstances is generally used in an ambiguous sense and is subject to confusion: it is supposed to mean miraculous, extraordinary, inexplicable, which is a very particular meaning of the word supernatural. The ambiguity is unfortunate because it would seem to deprive the aspects of pilgrimage (fervent masses, inumerable confessions, the Way of the Cross and rosaries) of a supernatural character, as if it were a place of superstition! Thus certain commentaries have suggested. But the Bishops Conference does not leave in any doubt the supernatural character of the Medjugorje liturgies, but only thinks that the proof of an extraordinary intervention by God is not yet established.
You know that Archbishop Franic blamed the prudence of the bishops and thinks that this has been partially responsible for the war, to the extent that "they did not recognize the voice of the Mother of God who was offering peace," or that they were "relentlessly opposed." (Latest News 14, p. 114). The urgent call of Our Lady was not sufficiently heard, she could not save the situation. I leave to the archbishop the responsibility of his judgment published in Gebetsaktion, not personally having the authority nor the competence for this (Latest News 13, 14 and 15: 1994, 1995, 1996).
During the war, which subjected his diocese to destruction and bloodshed, Bishop Zanic had taken refuge in Rome where he spent a long time in obtaining the nomination of a successor who would continue his struggle against the Franciscans and Medjugorje. He wasw successfull. Msgr. Peric, superior of the Croatian College in Rome, and who had been his principal assistant in transmitting his objections and complaints to Congregations in Rome, thus became the local bishop, with less firmly entrenched convictions, but less impulsive and therefore more effective than Bishop Zanic. Certainly he maintained an episcopal prudence and never gave any official negative judgment against pilgrimages, in spite of many unfavorable declarations and actions.
On several occasions he interpreted the judgment of the Bishops Conference in a manner which was in some way radically negative. Beginning in 1995 he had his Vicar General state these radical terms which he,himself expressed later in Crkva na Kamenu (his diocesan paper Church On the Rock ):
"It is impossible to declare that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions (in Medjugorje). Since the Declaration of the Bishops Conference April 10, 1991, there has been a negative judgment from the two bishops of Mostar: the former and the current one (Bishop Peric spoke here of himself in the third person). Those who affirm the contrary are telling naive children stories. We stand by the opinion that the Holy Virgin has not appeared in person at Medjugorje." He nevertheless added (this limits and contradicts his statement):
-The Ordinary of Mostar (Bishop Peric himself) is only saying what the bishops said (April 10, 1991) and does not believe in the stories about Medjugorje. This is what the Vicar General clearly stated before (in a recent declaration to the press). The text of the Declaration itself and the interpretation authorized by Cardinal Kuharic, principal author and signatory of the bishops declaration quoted earlier, sets the clock once again at the right time.
The See-saw Game of Interpretations
In this confusion several bishops from all over the world, not understanding anything, wondered if they should discourage the members of their dioceses from going to Medjugorje. They wrote to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and several received a reply which echoed the Bishops Conference official Declaration of April 10, 1991, but in terms so ambiguous that the press interpreted it in a very radically negative sense. As a consequence of these publications, many of the faithful had the understanding that : "If you go to Medjugorje, you are in disobedience."
Here is the essential part of the answer by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith addressed March 12, 1996 to Msgr. Taverdet, bishop of Langres, in reply to his letter of February 14, 1996. After having quoted the essentials of the Yugoslav Bishops Conference Declaration of April 10, 1991, (see above) he concludes:
"From what has been said it results that official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, understood as a place of authentic Marian apparitions, should not be organized because they would be in contradiction to what was affirmed by the bishops of ex-Yugoslavia."
Under the influence of the two successive statements of the two local bishops the reply accumulates all the negative characteristics without underlining the positive element of the document. The talk in the press was Rome forbids pilgrimages to Medjugorje.
The bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart echoed the same declaration received from Rome in more negative terms, and they were reproduced by the bishop of Metz. Sister Emmanuel wrote to him pointing out quite rightly:
"Cardinal Ratzinger has never forbidden pilgrimages to Medjugorje. He was only recalling a law of the Church, which means that for places of apparitions still under examination official pilgrimages are forbidden, but private pilgrimages are authorized." (Letter of November 8, 1995)
Given the confusion that arose from these contradictory and more or less abusive interpretations, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman for the Holy See and director of the press office, clearly denied the negative interpretation on August 21,1996:
"The Vatican has never said to Catholics , "You cannot go to Medjugorje." On the contrary, he said to the bishops: "Your parishes and dioceses cannot (yet) organize OFFICIAL pilgrimages. But one cannot tell people not to go there, insofar as it has not been proved that the apparitions are false . . . something that has never been declared. Therefore anyone who wants to, can go there." (Statement of August 21, 1996 to the Catholic New Service).
He added:"A Catholic who goes to such a place (of apparitions) in good faith has the right to spiritual assistance. The church never forbids priests to accompany journeys to Medjugorje in Bosnia- Hercegovina, organized by the laity, just as it never forbids them to accompany a group of Catholics to visit the Republic of South Africa. Whoever reads the letter of the Archbishop Bertone could think that from now on it is forbidden for Catholics to go to Medjugorje. That would be an incorrect interpretation, since nothing has changed, nothing new has been said. The problem is not to organize official pilgrimages (led by a bishop or the pastor of a church) which would seem to constitute a canonical recognition of the events of Medjugorje still under investigation. It is altogether another thing to organize a pilgrimage accompanied by a priest, who is necessary for confessions. It is a pity that the words of Archbishop Bertone were understood in a restrictive sense. Would the Church and the Vatican have said no to Medjugorje? No!"
The director of the press office noted correctly that Archbishop Bertone had echoed the Bishops Declaration where it is said that "the many faithful who go to Medjugorje require pastoral assistance of the Church" (therefore, the help of priests with their pilgrimage).
Thus pilgrimages to Medjugorje, although unofficial, require the pastoral assistance of priests for mass, preaching, and confessions.
Other Bishops
For lack of space, I will be brief on the position of the new bishop whose acts and declarations I have given in detail in successive volumes of Latest News of Medjugorje ( 13, 14, 15: 1994, 1995, 1996).
More than one hundred bishops have gone to Medjugorje in spite of the opposition of the local bishop. This is astonishing enough, given the strict way in which episcopal solidarity is carried out in the Church (something which has greatly damaged my reputation since the personal attacks of Bishop Zanic against me were taken seriously).
But many bishops have noted remarkable, profound and lasting conversions of the people of their dioceses at Medjugorje. Some, who were indifferent, opposed and protesting, have themselves become pillars of the Catholic Church. They went to look, they were convinced and they have witnessed to it, according to the statutory freedom established in the Church in this matter. I have given the names and the testimonies of these bishops in the later volumes of my Latest News.
The Position of the Pope
If so many bishops have gone to Medjugorje, in spite of all the dissuasion which the negative position of the local bishop was creating (and of which some of them were aware), there was another reason behind it that some of them have made public. They asked the advice of John Paul II who answered them positively, for instance to Bishop Hnilica, "If I were not Pope, I would have gone there long ago."
I cannot treat in detail the many testimonies of bishops on the position of the Pope. I will be even more discreet about the fact that, having been invited for breakfast with him to submit an important question to him, when I finished, he spent the rest of the breakfast asking me questions about Medjugorje.
What he most frequently pointed out to a number of bishops were the "good fruits", which are the basis for the authenticity of an apparition, according to the only criterion given by Christ Himself: "One judges the tree by its fruits" ( Mt. 7:16-20 ; 12:23 and similar).
On April, 6 1995 the Vice President of Croatia, Mr. Radi_, representing President Tudjman and Cardinal Kuhari_, came to thank the Pope after his visit to Croatia, inviting him to come in September 1995 to celebrate the 17th centenary of the founding of the church of Split. The Pope replied:
"I will look into it. But if I can come I would wish to visit Maria Bistrica (the national shrine of Our Lady near Zagreb) and . . . Medjugorje." These words were reported in the Croatian newspapers ( Latest News 14, p. 44).
According to Sister Emmanuel, he told an English group on May 31, 1995: "Pray that I may go to Medjugorje this year" ( Latest News 15 ). This testimony and others are published in Latest News 14, p. 43-44 and Latest News 15, pp. 43-46.
I do not think that the Popes desire can be realized, given the opposition of the local bishop, for even if the Pope is theoretically all powerful, he shows maximum respect for the established authorities in the Church according to the principle of subsidiarity that: the higher level must avoid interference with the lower level, while maintaining its freedom to confirm its convictions privately.
IN WHICH DIRECTION IS IT GOING?
In reply to the question: "In which direction is it going?" What to answer?
- Medjugorje is no longer under the Yugoslav Bishops Conference presided over by Cardinal Kuhari_ , who had assumed responsibility for pilgrimages. The Yugoslav Bishops Conference no longer exists and by that fact its Commission exists no more.
- The local bishop, Msgr. Peri_, now belongs to the Bosnia-Hercegovina Bishops Conference, presided over by Cardinal Pulji_ . He has always been in solidarity with the local bishop who is in opposition without formally stating his position. The new Bosnia-Hercegovina Bishops Conference has only three bishops. One is radically negative (the local bishop), and the other (the Cardinal President) is normally in solidarity. The position of the third one, Msgr. Komarica, the persecuted bishop of Banja Luka, president of the Yugoslav Bishops Commission for the investigation of Medjugorje, remains sibylline. In the Commission over which he presided the experts in favor of Medjugorje did not feel free as some of them confided to Archbishop Frani_.
The bishop of Mostar seemed to say privately to some people who would have repeated it: "During the war I will not act against Medjugorje, but without doubt the time will be after the war."
What is keeping his negative action muffled is that he is not ignoring the Popes discreet but well-known position. The situation of Medjugorje will remain morally protected as long asJohn Paul II is alive.
What will happen afterwards (as late as possible!) will depend on the next Pope.
From a human point of view the perspective would therefore seem quite gloomy. But it was even more gloomy when Bishop _ani_ announced his negative judgment at different stages which I cannot relate in detail. Each time the worst has been avoided against every expectation. The grace of Medjugorje continues: up to now the Virgin Mary has discretely shown herself to be the strongest even when it was at its worst, which were abundant.
Regarding an Official Action Recognized Officially as an Abuse Aginst the Franciscans
A much too little known fact will comfort those who appreciate the graces of Medjugorje. There are the repressions of the ecclesiastical authorities against the Franciscans whose parish of Medjugorje has suffered artificial counter blows and interferences which were sometimes abusive. One of those abuses of power was officially recognized and rescinded by the highest court of the Church, (similar to our "Cour de Cassation"), The Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature, on May 24, 1991 (R. Laurentin, Latest News 13 p 37-50):
Briefly, two Franciscan priests were condemned by an administrative decision for having continued their pastoral activities in Mostar among the faithful who did not want to receive the sacraments except from Franciscans. They were dismissed from the Order, dispensed from their vows and suspended (meaning they were deprived of their right to celebrate mass publicly and to exercise their priestly ministry). They often went to Medjugorje to pray and Vicka, whom they consulted, was judged very imprudent and at fault for saying that the judgment had been hasty, after having consulted the "Gospa."
The two friars objected to the administrative sanction, asking to be judged according to the laws of the Church and promising to submit to them. Their different appeals received no answer. The last one, addresssed to the Apostolic Signature on September 2, 1985 was taken into consideration. But at the beginning of 1986 one of the closest co-workers of the Pope stopped the progress of justice in this case in which he was involved, because the authorities of the Franciscan Order had made their decision at his firm request and he had to "cover" for them.
The judges of the Apostolic Signature, mindful of the statutory independence of justice, so well established in the Church as in all civilized countries, were shocked by this administrative pressure.
Moreover, shortly afterwards, the Pope (probably unaware of this fact) had made this co-worker Prefect of the Apostolic Signature which aggravated the uneasiness of the judges. Three years later the Pope, probably better informed, transferred this Cardinal to another congregation and the judges reopened the examination of the dossier. They judged, in all honesty, that the administrative declaration taken against the friars was invalid and contrary to canon law, which allowed one of the brothers, who had been persecuted for ten years but remained faithful, to resume his duties. The other had been so scandalized by this miscarriage of justice and so traumatized by a prolonged depression, that he had left the religious life and the priesthood, conforming (alas!) to the administrative decision that had excluded him from his Order, officially annulled his three vows including the one of chastity. The judgment of the Apostolic Signature which breaks this abuse of power put an end to this irregularity in the functioning of supreme justice. It is signed by ten judges, five of which are Cardinals, the Dean of the Sacred College as its head, since the supreme court of the Church is at a higher level than that of nations. Its judges are the principal governors: the heads of Dicasteries, the equivalent of Ministers of State.
However, out of respect for the important persons implicated in this abuse of power, the supreme tribunal issued this judgment with a note that forbids its publication: it is not allowed to be reproduced with its correct reasons, but only to make public its conclusions.
Briefly, if the apparition of Medjugorje indisputably produces the good fruits of conversion and of holiness that we all know, the opposition to Medjugorje produces bad fruits. Each one can here refer to the only criterion of discernment given by Christ: The tree is judged by its fruits (Mt 7:17-20; 12:33).
Let us therefore pray to the Gospa to continue to protect Medjugorje. May She maintain obedience in everyone, respect for the local bishop and the authorities, the sense of peace, but also generosity and efficiency at the service of the lights and fruits of Medjugorje: this masterpiece of Our Lady at the end of our century. May She enlighten those with high responsibility in the Church as She has enlightened Pope John Paul II himself.
