Updates from Denis

November 3, 2020 Update from Denis – Exposing today’s Crisis Article

The Church has spoken!
An August 6, 2019 Catholic News Service headline said it all:
“Vatican confirms Medjugorje approval by joining youth festival.”
(c)Mary TV

November 3, 2020

Dear Apostles of Our Lady of Medjugorje

Crisis Magazine published an article today that needs to be exposed:

Exposing “Medjugorje – A Cult Exposed”

Julie Stannus, a traditionalist Catholic, has dredged up an old and long-discredited charge against the most popular Marian apparition destination in the world. She makes no secret of her view of this apparition given her choice of title – “Medjugorje – A Cult Exposed.” She does not argue for her novel thesis that Medjugorje is a cult. She simply takes it as her starting point. This is her approach throughout an article which substitutes invective for argument.

Her approach is no different from that of the Fundamentalists who start of with the assertion that the Catholic Church is a cult and buttress their charges with accounts of the “bad popes.” Yes, there were bad popes but that has no bearing on Christ’s promise of the Church’s infallibility and the truth of the constant teaching of the Church. Analogously, every major authentic apparition of the Virgin attracts crazies who use it to push their own agendas. Check out, for instance, the Fatima groups who “excommunicated” John Paul II or claimed that the Sr. Lucia who met with outsiders was an imposter. Yet we do not (or at least should not) judge Fatima on the basis of the hangers-on who try to manipulate it to push their own agendas.

The basic fallacy of Medjugorje polemicists like Stannus is a pre-meditated refusal to distinguish between the Medjugorje phenomenon itself – namely the visionaries and their messages – from peripheral events and individuals. If some of the Franciscans who supported the visionaries were later guilty of sexual immorality, why should this be laid at the feet of the very visionaries who are calling the world to repentance and purity?! If Pope Alexander VI had several mistresses, why should this be thought off as an argument against the truth of the Nicene Creed?

Vlasic was clearly a bad actor and he thrust himself into activities surrounding Medjugorje in its early days. The visionaries took him at face value but once his malicious manipulation became apparent, they cut off all contact with him. Fortunately, in Fr. Slavko Barbaric the visionaries had a holy and intellectually sophisticated spiritual director. Stannus, of course, fails to mention this. Again she talks about the unfortunate acts of certain of the Franciscans but says not a word about the thousands of conversions attributed to Medjugorje. Nor does she mention the perspectives of two saints, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, who both prayed to Our Lady of Medjugorje. Worst of all, she has the temerity to suggest that Medjugorje could be diabolic when the world’s foremost exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, proclaimed that Medjugorje is a “fortress against Satan!”

Stannus’ potted history too is rife with error. One serious error of fact is her claim that Fr. Jozo Zovko was laicized. Not so. Although he had indefensible run-ins with some in the hierarchy, he remains a priest in good standing. Another equally serious error is her claim that the Franciscans, with particular reference to Fr. Zovko, first nurtured and “promoted the Medjugorje cult.” As a matter of fact, as any history of Medjugorje will tell you, Fr. Zovko was skeptical and it was the Bishop of Mostar who was the fervent supporter of the “cult”. The Bishop sought to change Fr. Zovko’s views. Of course, this “inconvenient truth” does not fit in with Stannus’ narrative where the Bishop is portrayed as the champion of truth against the cult. (She never defines “cult” or explains how Medjugorje can be thought off as a cult.)

Her seemingly innocuous comments about the tense history between the Bishop of Mostar and the Franciscans ignores the well-known fact that the local Bosnian Catholics had a deep attachment to the Franciscans who stayed and served during the long Ottoman reign in contrast with the ecclesial hierarchy who fled to safer pastures. When the area regained its independence and the hierarchy returned to take over, there was understandable friction between the hierarchy and the Franciscans. Stannus also says that the Medjugorje defenders portrayed Bishop Zanic of Mostar as “a Communist collaborator with no interest in the truth about the apparitions.” She adds “Nothing could be more unfair to Bishop Zanic.” Here she is either ignorant or allergic to the truth.

When Fr. Zovko was imprisoned by the Communist authorities for defending Medjugorje, Bishop Zanic wrote to him saying that he could not help him for fear of being imprisoned himself. This is when he changed his stance on Medjugorje. The correspondence exists. John Paul II had plenty of experience dealing with the Communists. This is why he turned down the Bishop’s request to condemn the apparition and removed his jurisdiction over the phenomenon – a first in the history of the Church. Like every other relevant fact, this little tidbit failed to show up in Stannus’ hit piece.

The Stannus article is a slipshod work of polemics that seeks to manipulate its readers much as Vlasic sought to manipulate the visionaries. It is a surprise that a publication like Crisis would publish it.

Denis Nolan
(c)Mary TV

Mission Statement

Mary TV is a lay apostolate founded to put at the Gospa’s service (Our Lady’s service) modern communication technologies to bring her presence in Medjugorje – and her school in Medjugorje – to the world.

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“Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!”

Pope St. John Paul II – February 24, 1990

“Dear children, my real, living presence among you should make you happy because this is the great love of my Son. He is sending me among you so that, with a motherly love, I may grant you safety!”

Our Lady of Medjugorje – July 2, 2016

“Rejoice, little children, because God is merciful and loves you all with His immeasurable love and leads you to the way of salvation through my coming here!”

Our Lady of Medjugorje – June 25, 2018

“My Son promised me that evil will never win, because you, the souls of the just, are here!”

Our Lady of Medjugorje – November 2, 2014

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Our Lady Speaks

Vicka's Note MaryTV

Vicka, one of the visionaries in Medjugorje, wrote the note (above) after Our Lady spoke with her during an apparition in Medjugorje in April, 1999, about Mary TV’s  plan to build a television facility in Medjugorje.

Vicka wrote to Denis: “Our Lady says that the plan is good – but you need to wait a little.  Now you can get prepared little by little, until Our Lady tells when the right moment is.  You don’t need to hurry, make haste, but to be patient.”

When Our Lady said this to Vicka, the technical genius in Medjugorje that she had her eyes upon, who would begin Mary TV’s live streaming from Medjugorje, was seven years old.

Totus Tuus (Totally Yours)

Immaculate Conception, Mary my Mother, Live in me, Act in me, Speak in me and through me, Think your thoughts in my mind, Love through my heart, Give me your dispositions and feelings, Teach, lead me and guide me to Jesus, Correct, enlighten and expand my thoughts and behavior, Possess my soul, Take over my entire personality and life, replace it with Yourself, Incline me to constant adoration, Pray in me and through me, Let me live in you and keep me in this union always.

Our Lady gave this prayer 25 years before She started appearing in Medjugorje. This prayer is being answered through Our Lady’s presence in Medjugorje and through Her messages. Mother Immaculata writes: “This is Mary’s hour and She is about to crush Satan’s head. Her very being is like incandescent heat in the center of the Trinity and the manifestation of Her power is growing daily. The Immaculate Conception prayer (which is what Our Lady called the prayer she gave me for union with Her) has been used by exorcists who have told me that the devil reacts violently to it and is subdued by it. We are praying daily for the success of Mary TV!“

Our Lady Gives A Sign…

Mary_with_Sun

MARY TV was LIVE STREAMING Ivan’s May 24, 2013 apparition on Mt. Podbrdo (Apparition Hill) in Medjugorje. My wife, Cathy, was praying in front of her computer in the US, connected through the Internet, welcoming Our Lady along with everyone gathered on the mountain. She couldn’t see anything on her computer screen because it was late at night and Ivan had said, “No lights.” She found herself asking Our Lady for a sign – a little light – as a sign that MARY TV was on the right track and really serving her. Just after the apparition, when she went to give an account on Mary TV’s Facebook page, the page opened with this picture that she had never seen before, captioned: “MARY APPEARS OVER BUILDING IN MEDJUGORJE, PHOTO TAKEN BY PILGRIM.” Our Lady is standing directly over MARY TV’s studios, her feet right where we have two POV cameras STREAMING 24/7 LIVE TO THE WORLD Apparition Hill & Cross Mountain!

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Our Lady spoke to Vicka during an apparition in Medjugorje in April, 1999, about the importance of Mary TV’s mission. At that time she told Vicka that she herself (Our Lady) would begin Mary TV! She did! But she didn’t do it alone. The generosity of her children made Mary TV a reality for her. Your generosity is needed now for it to continue!