IF THERE is one thing definite about the Medjugorje prophecies, it is that nothing is being said about the end of the world. Just as in other recent apparitions of the Blessed Mother worldwide. Instead, what is being conveyed is an end to a certain era, in ways that, in my view that rhymes with other Marian researchers, are in the tone of the Apocalypse.
In the first year of the Blessed Mother’s apparitions in Medjugorje, she warned as follows on Aug. 2, 1981: “A great battle is about to take place. A battle between my Son and Satan. Human souls are at stake.”
That was almost three decades, ago. These days, the visionaries of Medjugorje feel we are now in a phase of that battle, in the unfolding of the 10 secrets the Blessed Mother revealed to them.
Most of the six Medjugorje visionaries were already given 10 secrets. It would seem some of the secrets diff er for each, but some were given in common. Based on their statements, the ninth and tenth secrets were the same for them all.
And yes, the last two pertained to dire prophecies. Let me zero in on these two, gathering from a book-interview by the late Franciscan priest Fr. Janko Bubalo who, in the early ’80s, served as a confessor to visionary Vicka, among other sources.
Fr. Bubalo wrote Vicka telling him: “Last year, 1982, Our Lady revealed to Ivanka and Jakov that horrible ninth secret. That was the first day of the novena in honor of the Immaculate Conception. And just on the day of the party (December 8), she revealed to you that sad eighth secret. And this year, 1983, again on the day of the party itself, she revealed to Marija the ninth we have mentioned.
“ Fr. Bubalo noted to Vicka: “It is interesting that I, both last year and this year, was on the verge and I took note of how you were sad and strange on both occasions at the revelation of secrets, last year to you and Ivanka, and this year to Marija “. He also noted: “We have already said somewhere what Ivanka had told me last year, and Marija told me the same thing this year. So, as a joke, I told her she looked scared and she, very seriously, told me that even I would be scared if I heard. “
Vicka replied: “And she told you well!”
Fr. Bubalo continued: “It was November 29, 1982. (…) During the time of the meeting, I noticed two different states of mind in you seers. You were smiling and with bright eyes as usual, even if you were seriously ill at the time. Marija also had eyes that shone, as she usually is. But on the faces of Ivanka and Jakov, it seemed as if they were experiencing something painful. I noticed a kind of spasm on Ivanka, as if she were about to cry “.
Vicka: “At that time, the Virgin gave them the ninth secret and did not give it to Marija and me.”
Fr. Bubalo: “Well, I heard it even then. I then asked Ivanka if Our Lady let her glimpse something of the secret. And, almost in tears, she said: ‘I would have died if she had shown it to me!’
“ Fr. Bubalo: “I experienced something on the day of the Immaculate Conception. I was with you even then, at your meeting with the Virgin. Once again something interesting happened, that is on that occasion you are normally happy during the meetings, you seemed in some way serious “
Vicka: “Maybe. At that time, I also received the eighth secret. “
BBC journalist Mary Craig once quoted pilgrims as testifyng that another Medjugorje visionary, Marija “received the ninth secret before our eyes in the Apparition Chapel” and that “she cried gravely.”
During the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Medjugorje is located, in the midst of terrible genocide and war crimes, Vicka’s cousin, Karlo, remembered the reactions of Marija and Vicka in receiving the following secrets.
On September 22, 1992 she declared: “Vicka, remember how you cried when you received your seventh, eighth and ninth secrets, and even Marija? If we say that the Virgin did not mention this war right in the secrets, then, what are we waiting for? “
Vicka replied: “You just gave the answer to your question,” meaning the secrets revealed to them were even worse.
BBC’s Craig also reported an event that took place in the mid-1980s, while a team of French and Italian scientists examined the seers and their apparitions, visionary Jakov suddenly stopped breathing for 10 seconds after having told by the Blessed Mother all 10 secrets.
Mirjana was the first to receive the tenth secret in 1982, Since then, she would see the Blessed Mother no longer daily, but only once a year. She was selected by the Blessed Mother to reveal the secrets of the world one day.
Mirjana once said: “The eighth secret is worse than the other seven. I prayed for a long time that it could be less serious. Every day when the Madonna was tormented, asking that it be mitigated. Then she said that everyone should pray to be reduced.”
After receiving the tenth secret, Mirjana told the Franciscan priest Fr Tomislav: “So, in Sarajevo (in Bosnia-Herzegovina), I had many people who joined me in this prayer. Later, Our Lady told me that you had been able to have the attenuated secret. But then she explained the ninth secret to me and it was even worse. The tenth secret is the most serious and cannot be reduced under any circumstances. I cannot say anything because even a word would reveal the secret before it’s time to do it. “
Mirjana said the tenth secret given her could not be reduced anymore, while others could, through prayer and fasting (implying conversion). She noted that while “with prayer and fasting wars can also be removed and even the natural laws suspended,” the inevitability of the 10th secret would be based precisely on lack of conversion, on humankind’s choice.
Does the tenth secret refer to the warnings of the Blessed Mother to Sister Agnes Sasagawa in Akita, Japan in 1972? If so, let us pray and fast for ourselves, no longer for the mitigation of that which, the visionary said, has become irreversible.
