Pope Is Annoyed by “Locutions” From Medjugorje -- New Interview Book by Brazilian Priest

In a new interview book, Pope Francis commented on the flood of messages of apparitions and for the first time also extensively on Medjugorje.

(Rome) "I am annoyed when they come with the messages." In a new interview book by Alexandre Awi Mello, Pope Francis speaks about his relationship with Mary and also says what he thinks of the apparitions in Medjugorje and elsewhere.

Medjugorje is inhabited by Catholic Croats in the Herzegovinian mountains. Catholics were harassed there by the Communists until 1989, today by the Muslims. Since June 1981 in the place of several seers, the Mother of God Maria appears. The competent local bishops made a negative judgment, most recently in the early 1990s. Since then, the followers of the apparitions hope for a positive judgment from Rome. There, however, one dissembles for various reasons. Partly because the phenomenon continues onto the 38th year, and because one seeks the wise way to lead the faithful, without offending them.

Medjugorje and the flood of messages that Pope Francis does not like

"It's my mother"

Repeatedly, Pope Francis took a negative stance on the flood of allocations, even concretely against Medjugorje for the first time in September 2013, which was, however, embezzled by the Vatican media, and therefore never really came to the public. At the same time he sent a special envoy to Medjugorje, the Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser, who is very sympathetic to the phenomenon. What the Pope thinks exactly about Medjugorje can not be said with certainty.

A new interview book, which came into the bookstore yesterday, but provides interesting clues that fit into the previous picture. The conversation with Francis was not led by a journalist, but Alexandre Awi Mello, the secretary of the new Docastry for the Laity, the Family and Life. Awi Mello is a Brazilian priest of the Schoenstatt Movement who holds a Doctorate in Mariology. After teaching at various universities in Brazil, Francis called him to the Roman Curia in May 2017. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has known the priest since the Latin American Episcopal Council of Aparecida in 2007. The then Cardinal and Archbishop of Buenos Aires was responsible for the final document. Awi Mello was one of two editorial secretaries available to Bergoglio. The interview was thus conducted by a specialist theologian and can claim an official character due to the rank Awi Mello residing in the Vatican.

"He has the appointment book of the Blessed Mother? That’s why I said no "

The book is titled "She is my mother. Encounters with Mary” (Èmia madre, Incontri con Maria, Città Nuova 2018). 

In it Francis says:

"I'm annoyed when they come with the messages. The Virgin does not have a post office! "

Francis recalls the appearance of a Medjugorje seer in his Argentine episcopal city:

"When I was in Buenos Aires, I banned an assembly that still took place. They knew that I did not agree. "

The seer came to Buenos Aires to speak in a church. Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio resisted the event "without commenting on the authenticity of the apparition". 

He banned the event because, according to announcement:

"One of the seers would speak and explain everything a little, and at half past four the Virgin should appear. That means he had the appointment book of the Virgin. That's why I said, 'No, I do not want such kinds of things here'.  I said no, not in a church.”

"In the midst of human madness, God continues to work miracles"

In the book, Francis added to Medjugorje:

"It is necessary to distinguish, because God still works miracles in Medjugorje.”

Medjugorje

According to Francis, God works miracles "despite" the seers and "despite" the messages and the assertion of Marian apparitions in Medjugorje. It must therefore be distinguished between the work of God and the spectacle of the public rejected by the Pope.

"In the midst of human madness, God continues to work miracles."

The Pope expresses the assumption that among the alleged phenomena, Francis is mentioned as an example in addition to Medjugorje, the phenomenon in Salta, Argentina, "perhaps is more about personal phenomena.”

The Pope:

"I get letters, but you understand that these are mainly psychological things. It is necessary to make a clear distinction between things. I think there are graces in Medjugorje. You can not deny that. There are people who convert but there is a lack of distinction, and I do not want to say they sin, because these people never know it is sin, but there is at least a lack of distinction."

"And then they say, 'The Blessed Mother told me ...'"

Francis declares these rejected messages "theologically as inner speaking." “Inner locations are an outlet that comes from pure, implicit inspiration." This expresses more of a wishful thinking of the person concerned.

"The thing with the apparitions, so that's clear: Try to see it from the side of an internal locution. Then it's clear why I told you to go from one extreme to the other. Sometimes this Lokution almost materializes into a vision, and other times it can only be a simple inspiration. "

Concretely:

"For example, those who hear that the Blessed Mother tells them something. In prayer there is a locution, and then they say, 'The Blessed Mother told me ...'. Naturally. They express it in a way that seems like they really had an appearition. But from then until the seers become the main actors and organize programmed apparitions ... That is the sin that can accompany a great grace.”

Awi Mello writes:

"In short, to use the words of the Gospel, wheat and weeds grow together - even today.”

And Francis:

"Are there distinguishing criteria for appearances? One thing for me is the person's obedience to the church. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: Nuova Città (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG