Medjugorje: A Warning MICHAEL DAVIES The Remnant Press 4. MARIJA PAVLOVIC CONTRADICTS HERSELF As Mgr. Zanic makes clear in the next section, Marija Pavlovic has proved beyond any possibility of doubt that no confidence whatsoever can be placed in her veracity. Father Tomislav Vlasic, the Svengali figure who has been the principal manipulator of the alleged seers, established a bizarre community in Parma, Italy, with an enigmatic German lady named Agnes Heupel. In this community young men and women would live together, which, Mgr. Zanic comments, is something unheard of in the history of the Church. It should be noted that, like his fellow Franciscan, Father Vego, Father Vlasic had also made a nun pregnant. When their child was born at the beginning of 1977, he did not leave the order to marry the woman named Mada, but begged her not to expose him as the father, assuring her that if she kept the matter secret, she would be like Mary, and God would bless her! She complied with his wishes initially, but later, feeling abandoned, revealed the whole story to Mgr. Zanic. As was the case with Father Vego, Father Laurentin resorted to a cover-up, as he evidently felt that the credibility of the seers could be endangered if the immorality of their spiritual director became known. He went as far as claiming that a Franciscan named Pehar, who had left the order and gone to live in the U.S.A., was the father of the child. The founding of the Vlasic/Heupel community was a cause of scandal even to some devotees of Medjugorje. Father Vlasic decided that his critics would be silenced if it could be shown that he had acted in obedience to a command from Our Lady. On 21 April 1988 Our Lady duly "revealed" the fact that the community had been established at her express command to Marija Pavlovic. In July of the same year great consternation was caused among the Medjugorists when, possibly as a result of jealousy of Agnes Heupel, Pavlovic swore before the Blessed Sacrament that her previous statement had been false, and that the Vlasic/Heupel community was in no way endorsed by Our Lady. Even Father Laurentin would find it hard to cover-up the fact that Pavlovic must have been lying on at least one occasion. The full text of the 11 July 1988 retraction follows: I feel morally bound to make the following statements before God, our Lady, and the Church of Jesus Christ: (1) The message of the text An Invitation to the Marian Year and the deposition which bears my signature is that I brought Our Lady's answer to Brother Tomislav Vlasic's question. That answer was supposedly: "This is God's plan." In other words, it follows from these texts that I transmitted to Brother Tomislav Vlasic, Our Lady's confirmation and express approval of this work and of the programme set in motion in Italy with the Medjugorje prayer group. (2) I now declare that I never asked Our Lady for any confirmation whatsoever of this work begun by Brother Tomislav Vlasic and Agnes Heupel. I never expressly asked Our Lady whether I should take part in this work and I never received from Our Lady any instruction connected with the group, apart from her instruction that each of us should be free to make a choice for his or her own life. (3) From the texts and depositions which bear my signature it appears that Our Lady suggested that the community and the programme of Brother Tomislav Vlasic and Agnes Heupel are God's way for myself and the others. I now repeat that I never received from Our Lady nor gave Brother Vlasic or anybody else such a statement or instruction from Our Lady. (4) My first statement in its published form in Croatian and Italian does not correspond to the truth. I personally had no desire to make any written statement. Brother Tomislav Vlasic advised me, stressing the point again and again, that I, as a seer, ought to write a deposition which the world expected.   (5) I must, moreover, declare that the contents of the letter as set out and my having signed it give rise to a number of questions. For the time being, I can give to all possible questions only this one answer, which I give, I repeat, before God, Our Lady, and the Church of Jesus Christ: everything which might be understood as a confirmation and approval of this work of Brother Tomislav Vlasic and Agnes Heupel by Our Lady through myself is absolutely untrue and no less untrue is the idea that I spontaneously conceived the wish to write down that deposition. (6) I consider myself morally bound to repeat the following statements before God, Our Lady and the Church: After seven years of daily visions, after my most intimate experience of Our Lady's kindness and wisdom, in the light of all that I can remember of Our Lady's advice and of Our Lady's answers to the questions which I personally put to her, I can say publicly that the idea that Heaven's plan and the message of Our Lady to the world at Medjugorje have as a holy consequence and a process desired by Our Lady this Work and the programme begun in Italy by Brother Tomislav Vlasic and Agnes Heupel is unsustainable. It must, however, also be said that the daily apparitions are continuing. I sign this declaration before the Holy Sacrament, and destine it for all those devoted to the "Work" of Our Lady in Medjugorje. Marija Pavolovic,  1lth July 1988 HOME---------------MARY'S INDEX----------------BACK TO MARY'S BOOK www.catholictradition.org/Mary/medjugorje4.htm