Pope Laicizes Priest Involved with Purported Apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje Comments

The Vatican granted Father Tomislav Vlasic his request and laicized him. An ongoing investigation into growing concerns over the alleged apparitions continues. Continue Reading

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Mary Warren
3 years ago
The headline on this article and the article itself are in conflict. The Pope did not "defrock" this former priest, he did it himself. The Pope finalized it.

This article in fact is quite flawed in its reporting.

The following excerpt is from www.MaryTV.tv:

After the apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje began and the pastor of Medjugorje was put in prison by the communists, Fr. Tomislav Vlasic was assigned to St. James parish in Medjugorje. In September, 1984 he left Medjugorje and in 1985 was assigned to the parish in Vitina (with all priestly faculties - to preach, to hear confessions, celebrate Mass, etc., ie., when he left, he was in good standing with the Church). He was never formally designated pastor of St. James parish. Parish records state that Fr. Tomislav Pervan served as pastor in Medjugorje from 1982 through 1988.

Fr. Tomislva Vlasic moved to Italy in 1987 and in 1992 joined the Italian Franciscan Province of Abbruzzo. All these years he has not been a member of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina. It appears he decided to go on a different path in the mid 80�s, having been heavily influenced by a German woman who had come to Medjugorje, Agnes Heupel, who claimed to be a visionary, and with whom he formed his own community in 1987. During this time he tried forcing one of the visionaries of Medjugorje, Marija Pavlovic, to publicly state that Our Lady supported his �spiritual marriage� with Agnes Heupel and the new way of life of his community. To the contrary, Marija�s conscience forced her to write a public statement on July 11, 1988, disavowing any connection with him or with his community: �I repeat that I never received from the Gospa, nor gave Fr. Tomislav or anyone else, a confirmation of the program of Fr. Tomislav and Agnes Heupel.� Though Fr. Vlasic would later build a house outside of Medjugorje behind the hill of Crnica, between the village of Surmanc and Bijakovici, he, himself, kept distant from Medjugorje and was never involved in any activities of the parish.

The fact is that in the mid 80�s Fr. Vlasic decided to go his own way and since then none of the visionaries of Medjugorje have had any contact with him.

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