You know Pope is in an interesting position now because from what I can see most Catholics are not happy about this and even questioning whole notion of papacy. Because, as you may know, Christians don't like to be proven wrong when it comes to their beliefs. So pope became almost like Dawkins when it comes to Medjugorje.
And I guess most people would think "why doesn't he just green lights it? It's already bringing money, people have accepted it, it's always good that these imaginary beings have some 'proof' of existence."
But this is where vanity of the Pope and Vatican comes in. The main problem with Medjugorje is that Marian "witnesses" are still alive. In all other cases Mary was "seen" by kids that died quickly afterward. But here if the pope proclaims it "genuine" then those witnesses would have status of some sort of half-gods. I mean these are people that are supposedly visited by "god" being herself, heck maybe they could even write some new chapters to the Bible.
They could maybe even become more popular then the Pope himself (heck Pope isn't visited by Jesus mother). So you see, it's clear and simple.
And I guess most people would think "why doesn't he just green lights it? It's already bringing money, people have accepted it, it's always good that these imaginary beings have some 'proof' of existence."
But this is where vanity of the Pope and Vatican comes in. The main problem with Medjugorje is that Marian "witnesses" are still alive. In all other cases Mary was "seen" by kids that died quickly afterward. But here if the pope proclaims it "genuine" then those witnesses would have status of some sort of half-gods. I mean these are people that are supposedly visited by "god" being herself, heck maybe they could even write some new chapters to the Bible.
They could maybe even become more popular then the Pope himself (heck Pope isn't visited by Jesus mother). So you see, it's clear and simple.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
