Yuku free message boards

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, announced a commission would be formed to review the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje and pastoral provisions for the thousands of pilgrims who visit the town each year.

"The commission members have not been named yet," Cardinal Puljic told Catholic News Service in a July 24 telephone interview. "I am awaiting suggestions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" on theologians to appoint.

"But this commission will be under the (Bosnian) bishops' conference" as is the usual practice with alleged apparitions, he said.

* * *

He said the primary task of the commission would be to review a 1991 report from the region's bishops that concluded, "It cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations."

In addition, he said, the commission would be asked to review pastoral provisions that forbid official diocesan and parish pilgrimages to Medjugorje, while at the same time allowing priests to accompany groups of Catholics in order to provide the sacraments and spiritual guidance.

* * *

On June 25, thousands of pilgrims converged on Medjugorje to mark the 25th anniversary of the first alleged apparition to six young people.

The Vatican continues to monitor events at Medjugorje, where the apparitions allegedly continue, but it has not taken a formal position other than to support the bishops' ban on official pilgrimages.

* * *