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Title: Medjugorje: Facts, Documents, Theology by Michael O'Carroll ISBN: 1-85390-073-7 Publisher: Ignatius Pr Pub. Date: 01 December, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but One-Sided Examination of Virgin Appearances
Comment: In 1981 the Virgin Mary appeared to a group of teenagers on a hillside in the small Bosnian town of Meðugorje (med-zhu-GORE-yay). She kept appearing, day after day, to the same children for years. She answered questions, gave blessings and advice, and some say she healed the sick. From the very beginning, the apparitions have aroused controversy within and beyond the Catholic church. While the town has become a major attraction to pilgrims, and a series of scientists and experts have found no reason to doubt the veracity or sanity of the children, others are not so sure.

At the time of the visions, the church in Bosnia was undergoing fundamental change as diocesan authorities sought to consolidate their control over rural parishes traditionally operated by the Franciscans. That the Virgin consistently supported the Franciscans and criticized Bishop Zanic of Mostar to some people indicates the rightness of the Franciscan position, but to others is a suspicious intervention in petty church politics and undermines the credibility of the Meðugorje apparitions.

Father O'Carroll, a member of the Pontifical Marian Academy and the French Society for Marian Studies, quite obviously believes in the Virgin apparitions. The book is well organized to provide some background to the political context and the personal disputes at play in the controversy. O'Carroll reprints Bishop Zanic's 24-page rebuttal to the apparitions and gives full play to both sides. However, he goes out of his way to praise the scholarly and Christian attributes of those supporting the apparitions, while being substantially less charitable to Zanic and other skeptics. Thus believer René Laurentin has "established competence", is "scrupulously honest, and "can be trusted in research and in loyalty to the Church", while Bishop Zanic is "a tough Croatian", "strong-willed", and "uninhibited to the point of recklessness". The good Father O'Carroll appears to take seriously his responsibility to make sure readers draw the correct conclusions.

It is interesting to read as the ecclesiastical and scientific experts marshal logic and empirical science to explain or debunk the apparitions. Ultimately, the book can help illuminate the topic, but despite O'Carroll's best persuasive efforts, it can not decide the issue conclusively one way or another. That can only be done, one by one, in the hearts of those interested in Meðugorje.