User:Governor Sheng/sandbox/Our Lady of Medjugorje/Position of the Church

Position of the Church
The only official stance taken by the Church is the Declaration of the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia in Zadar, from 10 April 1991, in which it is said that the alleged apparitions "non constat de supernaturalitate", that is that on the basis of previous examinations, it is impossible to establish that these are supernatural apparitions or revelations. The Delcaration allowed the pilgrames.

The local bishops denied the apparitions. Bishop Pavao Žanić took a negative stance towards the apparitions after seeing some false statements from the alleged seers and Madonna accusing him of causing disorder in the Herzegovina Case, a dispute over the redistribution of parishes between the Franciscans and the diocesan clergy, and taking the side of the two disobident Franciscans. In a sermon in Medjugorje from 1987, Bishop Pavao expressed his dissatisfaction with the apparitions happening at any location, including cars and buses, exclaiming "Madonna, what are they doing to you?".

Pope
Even though the supporters of the apparitions claimed that Pope John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were sympathetic towards the apparitions, Ratzinger refuted these claims in July 1998, stating: "I can only say that the statements about Medjugorje attributed to the Holy Father and me are mere fabrications! (frei erfunden)".

In an interview in May 2017, Pope Francis commented on the findings of the commission headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini saying that the report said of the initial apparitions that they "need to continue being studied" and expressed doubts in the later apparitions. He also expressed his own suspicion towards the apparitions saying he prefers "the Madonna as Mother, our Mother, and not a woman who’s the head of an office".

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Pope Benedict XVI asked then secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer to start an investigation into the alleged Marian apparitions to prevent their "excesses and abuses". The pope instructed the bishops not to be swayed by emotional reaction of believers but be guided instead by the strict "scientific, psychological and theological criteria".