Courtney McGrailDear Editor, I simply cannot believe Paul Keenan’s remarks on Medjugorje (IC 02/07/2015)! He says: “To focus solely on questions of veracity around what is taking place at Medjugorje is to miss completely just what is taking place.”
I should have thought that “questions of veracity” – that is, whether Our Lady is or is not appearing to the ‘seers’ – is at the very centre of the question to be decided by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
As religious affairs correspondent of RTÉ, I produced a one-hour radio documentary on Medjugorje in the late 1980s.
Ivisited the site myself at the request of Irish supporters of Medjugorje and spoke to fans of the site (like the late Archbishop Philip Hannan of New Orleans and the late Fr Michael Carroll of Blackrock College) and those who felt the whole thing was a fraud, like the former Bishop of Mostar, Bishop Pavao Zanic, and Dr E Michael Jones.
I was present for one of the ‘visions’ in Medjugorje with Vicka Ivankovic and when an Irish pilgrim
saw the sun “spinning in the sky”.
There is no doubt that the pilgrims are there in good faith, and that much good work appears to come from the shrine.
But the conclusion of my programme was that Our Lady was not appearing, and had never appeared, to the ‘visionaries’. I hope that it is not too long before the Vatican comes to the same conclusion.
Yours etc.,
Kieron Wood,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.