The ruling Communists of then Yugoslavia tried to manipulate Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar as part of their plan to suppress Medjugorje and the boasts of apparitions. Spies were all around him and his telephone ended up being wiretapped.
But Bishop Zanic did not collaborate with all the Yugoslav regime or with UDBA, the key police, and the threats along with repressions against Medjugorje were not decisive once the Bishop replaced his initial belief in the apparitions with a stance associated with disbelief and opposition.
Consequently says Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar, the successor of Bishop Zanic, in a new post published on the diocesan website.
Reply to secret police revelations
Bishop Peric’s post comes in response to the book “Medjugorje Misterij”, printed in June 2011, and later on coverage by Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli. Inside book, four Croatian journalists reported how the Yugoslav secret police (UDBA) repressed Medjugorje within the 1980s, through papers uncovered from UDBA’s archives.
Leaving the situation open to interpretation, the authors cited a collaboration between Bishop Zanic and UDBA as one possible way associated with understanding a certain document. In the article Bishop Ratko Peric denies this option, and additional points to factual problems in UDBA documents. Early on, your Bishop clarifies his motives for writing:
“Since the late Bishop Pavao Zanic can be mentioned in numerous pages with the book, and not in a complimentary way, it is our responsibility, for the love of truth along with out of respect for Bishop Pavao, who was simply a bishop in Herzegovina for Twenty-three years, to respond to such haphazard claims and insinuations” Bishop Ratko Peric writes.
Once the book “Medjugorje Misterij” had lend brand new insight into the Yugoslav secret police’s take on Medjugorje, expert Vatican journalist/commentator Andrea Tornielli took up the issue throughout Vatican Insider. From the original paperwork translated into Italian, Tornielli made four conclusions:
1) The secret police used Bishop Zanic as a “main tool” throughout compromising Franciscan priests associated with Medjugorje.
2) As “the second part” of the secret police program, Tornielli cites “using the ancient conflict that will exists in Herzegovina between the luxurious clergy and Franciscans, foreseen to create chaos in the local Church by simply turning everyone against everybody.”
3) Bishop Zanic’s hostility to Medjugorje ended up being “fed by a series of documents assembled ??by the men of the secret police, which were circulated amid Mostar, the Vatican and some European countries.”
Some) A secret police report associated with November 17th 1987 “shows just how Bishop Zanic was willing to accept just about any document against the Franciscans and from the apparitions, even if of dubious origin.”
“These documents will also be scrutinized through the Holy See committee asked to pronounce itself on Medjugorje” Andrea Tornielli concluded.
Bishop Peric’s recent article takes on Tornielli’s subsequent coverage in Vatican Expert from the first paragraphs, speaking about “very grave accusations”. In addressing Tornielli’s conclusions, the Bishop allows a Medjugorje opposition in Canada to speak for him, from a short email exchange between the Canadian along with Andrea Tornielli:
Tornielli is “attacking the intellectual, faith based, and pastoral integrity of the past Ordinary of Mostar, Msgr. Pavao Zanic” but “does certainly not ‘document’ anything, does not verify anything at all: he copies/pastes very serious allegations with no granting his readers just about any factual historical retrospective” Bishop Peric’s recent post says.
Andrea Tornielli has informed that will his article in Vatican Expert was based on translations of the original paperwork from the secret police, provided to him by “Miserij Medjugorje” main publisher, journalist Zarko Ivkovic.
Bishop Peric’s article does not that will address the conclusions that the secret police gave their predecessor false documents, which the Communists used the centuries-old conflict among the Hercegovian clergy in battling Medjugorje.
One out of five book problems touches issue
Bishop Peric numbers several factual errors in “Misterij Medjugorje”. The very first four do not deal with their bond between his predecessor as well as the secret police:
1) The book mentions June 25th 1981 as the day of the first apparition when genuinely it took place on the day ahead of.
2) In 1986, Bishop Zanic went to The italian capital 7 times, not 14 as claimed in the book.
3) A UDBA document claiming that will 10 priests had disobeyed Bishop Zanic over testimonials is incorrect, as no person disobeyed.
4) A UDBA document saying that Bishop Zanic had left a meeting with the other Yugoslav bishops throughout protest after his unfavorable stand on Medjugorje had been criticized by simply Cardinal Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb is likewise incorrect.
The book’s fifth factual blunder, as found by Bishop Ratko Peric, relates to any UDBA document informing that the secret law enforcement officials considered to compromise Bishop Zanic by fabricating anonymous letters against him. These kind of letters were to be sent to Key Kuharic, to Archbishop Frane Franic of Split, and to Ratko Peric himself, during his time because rector of the College of St. Jerome in Rome.
In his post, Bishop Peric acknowledges that “the document claims that the letter was delivered to UDBA superiors for approval”. Possibly, no words were sent. Bishop Peric then creates:
“Peric, the former rector and current bishop associated with Mostar, affirms responsibly that he by no means received any anonymous correspondence, then or ever, towards Bishop Zanic.”
“But who will be able to rebut all the insinuations via UDBA, which the fans of Medjugorje pass as the greatest discovery!” Bishop Peric additionally writes, as reported tagza.com.
