The ruling Communists of next Yugoslavia tried to manipulate Bishop Pavao Zanic of Mostar in their plan to suppress Medjugorje and the promises of apparitions. Spies were around him and his telephone has been wiretapped.
But Bishop Zanic did not collaborate while using Yugoslav regime or with UDBA, the secret police, and the threats along with repressions against Medjugorje were not decisive when the Bishop replaced his initial belief in the apparitions with a stance of disbelief and opposition.
Therefore says Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar, the heir of Bishop Zanic, in a new article published on the diocesan website.
Response to secret police revelations
Bishop Peric’s article comes in response to the book “Medjugorje Misterij”, published in June 2011, and later coverage by Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli. Inside book, four Croatian journalists recorded how the Yugoslav secret police (UDBA) repressed Medjugorje in the 1980s, through papers uncovered from UDBA’s archives.
Leaving the matter open to interpretation, the creators cited a collaboration involving Bishop Zanic and UDBA as one possible way of understanding a certain document. In their article Bishop Ratko Peric denies this option, and further points to factual mistakes in UDBA documents. Early on, the particular Bishop clarifies his motives with regard to writing:
“Since the late Bishop Pavao Zanic is mentioned in numerous pages from the book, and not in a free way, it is our duty, for the love of truth along with out of respect for Bishop Pavao, who had previously been a bishop in Herzegovina for 12 years, to respond to such irrelavent claims and insinuations” Bishop Ratko Peric writes.
If the book “Medjugorje Misterij” had lend brand new insight into the Yugoslav secret police’s handle Medjugorje, expert Vatican journalist/commentator Andrea Tornielli took up the issue within Vatican Insider. From the original papers translated into Italian, Tornielli made four conclusions:
1) The secret police used Bishop Zanic as a “main tool” within compromising Franciscan priests associated with Medjugorje.
2) As “the 2nd part” of the secret police plan, Tornielli cites “using the ancient conflict that will exists in Herzegovina between the secular clergy and Franciscans, foreseen to make chaos in the local Church by turning everyone against every person.”
3) Bishop Zanic’s hostility to Medjugorje has been “fed by a series of documents build ??by the men of the secret police, which were circulated among Mostar, the Vatican and some European countries.”
Four) A secret police report of November 17th 1987 “shows just how Bishop Zanic was willing to accept just about any document against the Franciscans and up against the apparitions, even if of dubious source.”
“These documents will also be scrutinized from the Holy See committee called upon to pronounce itself on Medjugorje” Andrea Tornielli concluded.
Bishop Peric’s recent article represents Tornielli’s subsequent coverage in Vatican Insider from the first paragraphs, talking about “very grave accusations”. In addressing Tornielli’s findings, the Bishop allows a Medjugorje opposition in Canada to speak with regard to him, from a short email exchange between the Canadian along with Andrea Tornielli:
Tornielli is “attacking the intellectual, religious, and pastoral integrity of the previous Ordinary of Mostar, Msgr. Pavao Zanic” but “does not ‘document’ anything, does not verify everything: he copies/pastes very serious allegations with out granting his readers just about any factual historical retrospective” Bishop Peric’s recent article says.
Andrea Tornielli has informed that will his article in Vatican Insider was based on translations of the original papers from the secret police, given to him by “Miserij Medjugorje” main author, journalist Zarko Ivkovic.
Bishop Peric’s article does not that will address the conclusions that the secret police gave their predecessor false documents, and that the Communists used the centuries-old conflict among the Hercegovian clergy in fighting Medjugorje.
One out of five book mistakes touches issue
Bishop Peric numbers a few factual errors in “Misterij Medjugorje”. The very first four do not deal with their bond between his predecessor and also the secret police:
1) The e-book mentions June 25th 1981 as the day of the first apparition when actually it took place on the day just before.
2) In 1986, Bishop Zanic went to Rome 7 times, not Fourteen as claimed in the e-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 acquired left a meeting with the other Yugoslav bishops within protest after his damaging stand on Medjugorje had been criticized by Cardinal Franjo Kuharic of Zagreb is likewise wrong.
The book’s fifth factual problem, as found by Bishop Ratko Peric, relates to the UDBA document informing that the secret police considered to compromise Bishop Zanic by fabricating private letters against him. These kind of letters were to be sent to Primary Kuharic, to Archbishop Frane Franic of Split, and also to Ratko Peric himself, during his time as rector of the College of E. Jerome in Rome.
In his article, Bishop Peric acknowledges that “the document says that the letter was delivered to UDBA superiors for approval”. Possibly, no letters were sent. Bishop Peric then creates:
“Peric, the former rector and current bishop of Mostar, affirms responsibly that he in no way received any anonymous page, then or ever, versus Bishop Zanic.”
“But who will be able to rebut all the insinuations coming from UDBA, which the fans of Medjugorje pass as the greatest discovery!” Bishop Peric in addition writes, as reported tagza.com.