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Marketing Medjugorje

Sacramento Diocese Shills for Full-Service Travel Agency

By Cameron O'Shea

Incredible claims of daily apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary since June 24, 1981 have caused millions of Catholics to travel to Medjugorje, a village in the diocese of Mostar in Bosnia (formerly a part of Yugoslavia.

More millions of Catholics, including almost all Catholics involved in the charismatic movements, have had some knowledge of Medjugorje goings-on through Medjugorje, Marian, Peace, or "Mir" (which means "peace" in Croatian) conferences, meetings or retreats, and speakers; or through newspaper and magazine articles, books, pamphlets, tabloids, CDs, and video and audio cassette tapes promoting the Medjugorje apparitions. These are prominently displayed bestsellers and mainstays in the stocks of many Catholic bookstores and at on-site "bookstores" operated in conjunction with Medjugorje conferences. Bookstores are an integral part of these conferences.

Internet web sites promote the Medjugorje cult (e.g. see www.medjugorje.org). Several of the speakers are featured on various web sites, often with books they have authored or other products to sell. All of this seems to go on with approval of the Catholic Church in the United States, since the conferences often use Catholic facilities, and priests, religious, and even bishops participate in them. Some of the largest annual Medjugorje conferences have occurred for several years at Notre Dame. But who is responsible for investigating and providing Catholics with the Church position on apparitions, such as the apparitions and messages connected to Medjugorje? The bishop of the diocese where the apparitions are claimed to occur has that responsibility and authority. In the case of Medjugorje, that would be the bishop of the diocese of Mostar.

During Spring, 2000 when announcements were made that a major Medjugorje conference was being planned for August in Sacramento, local Catholic Laurette Elsberry wrote to Bishop Ratko Peric, the present bishop of Mostar, to ask for the official position of the Catholic Church on the Medjugorje apparitions. She received a letter in response from the chancellor of the diocese, Don Ante Luburic. He quoted St. Paul's letter to his disciple Timothy: "for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths" (2 Tim 4, 3-4). The chancellor also provided an article, "Criteria for Discerning Apparitions -- Regarding the Events of Medjugorje," translated into English from a book about the Blessed Virgin Mary entitled The Seat of Wisdom, edited by Bishop Peric. The chancellor wrote: "You can use it, especially the last ten points regarding the arguments against the authenticity of the alleged apparitions."

Elsberry sent a copy the chancellor's letter and excerpts from the article he sent to her, to many pastors of parishes in Sacramento and Stockton to inform them of the Church's position and to urge them not to be involved in promoting the Sacramento Medjugorje conference. Already conference promoters had used Church channels, including the diocesan Catholic Herald newspaper, parish bulletins, and parish address lists to promote the event.

The principal organizer of the Sacramento Conference was Lynn (Marilyn) Hoffman, the CEO of a "full service" travel agency named "Fiat Voluntas Tua," which mostly deals in package tours to Medjugorje. It is a member of the American Society of Travel Agents and is registered with the California Department of Justice. Notices of Hoffman's many tours to Medjugorje can also be found on her web site www.fiattravel.com.

On Saturday, April 8, a meeting was held at Leatherby's Family Creamery restaurant in Sacramento at which Lynn Hoffman was introduced. (Flyers announcing the meeting to plan "A Marian Medjugorje Conference" and stating that "Lynn Hoffman, a California resident in close contact with the visionaries of Medjugorje, will guide the meeting and share her ideas," had been placed in Medjugorje-friendly parishes. It should be noted that the flyer failed to state that Hoffman is not merely a "California resident in close contact with the visionaries of Medjugorje," but does have business ties with them, so far as to assigning "pilgrims" (those who make the "first 30 deposits" of $400 each) get "accommodations with Mirjana" to live with one of the two original "visionaries" who launched the Medjugorje phenomenon.

Hoffman made it clear that she was in charge of the conference. She did not reveal to those volunteering to help organize and implement it that she was a travel agent, and could expect to profit from the recruitment of travel clients to Medjugorje from those who might become enthusiastic travel clients after attending the conference, with its strong emphasis on making frequent trips or "pilgrimages" to Medjugorje. Lynn Hoffman advised the fifty or more volunteers at the planning meeting that henceforth the conference was not going to be called a Medjugorje conference but rather a Marian Retreat, even though it was perfectly from the speakers' list, including the inviting of at least one of the Medjugorje visionaries, and other Medjugorje circuit speakers and Wayne Weible, that the conference was going to be a Medjugorje conference like its predecessors in the Stockton diocese. The front of the brochure for the Sacramento conference named the conference as the "Formerly Modesto Retreat" and that it was "Sponsored by Fiat Voluntas Tua Medjugorje Pilgrimages," which few would realize was a "full service travel agency."

The conference had been planned for the Sacramento convention center but was moved to the renovated Sacramento Memorial auditorium, where a Mary's Hour conference was held in May. The May conference featured Dana, an Irish singer popular on the Medjugorje circuit. The impression is given that belief in and promotion of the apparitions at Medjugorje is acceptable, though the bishop of Mostar and his successor have investigated the apparitions, found lies, manipulations, and clerical disobedience and immoral behavior associated with them, and stated that the apparitions are not authentic. Franciscan clergy associated with the apparitions have had their faculties to administer the sacraments and to function as pastors of St. James parish in Mostar removed by their bishop, and they have been disciplined by their Franciscan superiors. These facts have been either kept from "pilgrims" or ignored by those who promote "pilgrimages" to Medjugorje, thereby placing money in the hands of the Franciscan priests who are in disobedience to the bishop of Mostar and to their Franciscan superiors, and are using the wealth they have acquired from the pilgrims to build unauthorized churches and other facilities in the Mostar diocese. Two of the Franciscan priests associated with Medjugorje have conceived a child with a nun: Father Tomislav Vlasic with a Sister Rufina and Father Ivica Vego with a Sister Leopolda. And the most prominent Medjugorje priest, Father Jozo Zovko was suspended by the superior general of the Franciscan order after accusations of sexually assaulting women pilgrims.

Flyers promoting the Medjugorje conference which were distributed in parishes in the Sacramento area in the months before the conference, showed pictures of a New Age like-woman hovering over the twin square towers of St. James Church in Medjugorje. The flyers which were mailed out were the same as those made available in churches. All had the return address of Hoffman's travel agency in Tracy, California. The two lead speakers, Marija Pavlovic Lunetti and Sister Janja Boras were designated as "From Medjugorje:" and Marija was described as "The visionary who receives the monthly message for the world. She will have her daily apparitions in Sacramento."

The conference was billed as being held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, August 25-27, 2000. The attendance fee was $50 in advance or $60 at the door, with a youth fee of $10. Box lunches were available at $8 each and a buffet dinner at $12. Special rates were offered at the upscale Hyatt Regency, listed as the "retreat headquarters" and also at the Clarion Hotel. There was no charge for Friday evening, as one conference worker remarked in response to whether an attendee had to have paid to attend the Friday Rosary, Holy Mass, and Healing Service, "Oh no, it's only a Mass." In addition to the above charges, if one wanted audio tapes of one or more of the ten talks, the tapes were $6 each, or $50 for all 10. The tapes were produced on site by SOLT Media, described as "Video and audio recording specialists, featuring Fr. John Corapi, S.O.L.T." Flyers announced Father Corapi's other services. On hand to sell their wares were representatives of Medjugorje Magazine (quarterly for $15) and salesmen of satellite dishes promising EWTN coverage of Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), which for years provided favorable coverage to a wide range of Medjugorje promoters.

It was easy for one to discern the nature of the "Marian Retreat" upon entering the main doors of the Memorial auditorium. Facing the street was a picture of Mary, associated with Medjugorje. Below the picture was the word "Gospa" -- the Croatian name used to refer to the Medjugorje Mary. A make-shift bookstore could be seen in the "Memorial Room" to the left of the foyer, and the small theater to the right of the foyer was being used as an "Adoration Chapel" for the weekend. A requirement for entering the inner hallway of the Auditorium was that the attendee wear a name badge, available when paying the entrance fee. The name tag plastic holder was enclosed in what was referred to as a "Religious Goodie Bag." In addition to small religious articles and prayer cards, was a plastic-enclosed card with colored picture of "Our Lady of Medjugorje" and a small tin medal with the Blessed Virgin depicted over the words "Medjugorje." On the reverse was St. James Church in Medjugorje. It was manufactured in Medjugorje. On the name tag was printed: Sacramento Marian Retreat - Medjugorje Pilgrimages: 1-877-333-FIAT, the toll-free number for Lyn Hoffman's Fiat Voluntas Tua travel agency.

Throughout the conference, Medjugorje luminaries including visionary Marija (Pavlovic)and her husband Paolo Lunetti, Sister Janja Boras, and Father Robert Faricy were highlighted. The importance of traveling to Medjugorje was emphasized to those attending the conference. The general theme was that no one could get the full effect of Medjugorje unless he traveled (and returned regularly) to experience it first-hand, at the site. At the conference, Lynn Hoffman had flyers distributed that listed seven Medjugorje tours during the next four months. (There were 15 tours to Medjugorje that had taken place in the earlier part of the year) Her website listed 21 Year 2001 "pilgrimages" to Medjugorje. If the pilgrimages averaged 30 persons each, at about $1,500 each, that would be a gross close to one million dollars per year for Hoffman's FIAT travel agency.

It is revealing to look at the flyer made available at the conference. At first glance the prices seem not that out of line with vacation packages. For example, a trip this past April would have been $1549, for nine days. But again, this is somewhat duplicitous, since it is noted on the flyer that "Prices are for East Coast Departures." A round trip flight from the West to the East Coast would add several hundred to dollars more, depending upon when the booking is made and how much lead time there is, and could involve an overnight stay in New York for elderly travelers who otherwise find making the international flight connection too strenuous. And Lynn Hoffman, doing business as Fiat Voluntas Tua, would be happy to make those travel arrangements to the East Coast for the Medjugorje "pilgrims" too.

Father Ted Shipp, who was described on the conference advertising flyers distributed by Lynn Hoffman's travel agency as Master of Ceremonies, hugged everyone who appeared on the stage, including Sister Janja Boras and Mrs. Marija (Pavlovic) Lunetti, the visionary. The theme of Father Shipp and most of the speakers was that Mary is directing their lives. Their actions (going to Medjugorje, for example) are the result of her wishes. Often the speakers' words are "Mary told me...," although how these words were conveyed to the speakers who are not claiming to receive apparitions, locutions, or other miraculous messages is not clarified. Wayne Weible, described on the Fiat travel agency flyer as an "Author and Inspirational Speaker" appears to be receiving messages from Heaven. Weible, who has been to Medjugorje no less than 32 times, ended up giving two presentations rather than his one scheduled talk, when one of the other speakers became ill. He revealed that he has been receiving communications from Our Blessed Mother, and that she has asked him (and God has presumably empowered him) to give a "motherly blessing" to everyone. This blessing is reputedly extremely powerful and heals in mind and body and spiritually. Acting with his powers, Weible gave the conference attendees this special "Motherly Blessing." Stated Weible, "And in the very early part of my own mission, she asked this of me, to give this blessing to every group. And I do. So I'm giving that blessing again to all of you here today.... I give you Mary's special blessing. If you literally want to feel it by the power of the Holy Spirit, just raise your hands, just like this, and receive this from Our Lady."

Weible has his own Internet pages, linked to the web site www.medjugorje.org. There one can find his list of books, tapes (video and audio), and his own newsletter, current and back issues. He appears to have a bookstore in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -- St. Theresa Catholic Book Store. According to Medjugorje teaching, the "Gospa," in addition to the daily messages, annual messages, birthday messages, ten secrets, etc., gives monthly messages to Marija on the 25th of each month. The first day of the Sacramento conference was Friday, August 25th, and sure enough, on Saturday afternoon, letter-size sheets of white paper were distributed throughout the Memorial Auditorium proclaiming in large print within a bold geometric border the monthly message, dated August 25, 2000. It was boldly headlined: "Monthly Message From Our Lady To the Medjugorje visionary Marija given in Sacramento, CA, The City of the Blessed Sacrament." Members of the audience were eager to lay hands on this fresh revelation, though most of them seemed jaded about receiving one more of the thousands of Medjugorje messages from the Blessed Virgin. One of the event helpers assured that the messages were placed on each chair on the main floor, and scurried up into the balcony to hand out the messages to the upper-tier audience. The "Monthly Message" read: "Dear children! I desire to share my joy with you. In my Immaculate Heart I feel that there are many of those (sic)who have drawn closer to me and are, in a special way, carrying the victory of my Immaculate Heart in their hearts by praying and converting. I desire to thank you and to inspire you to work even more for God and his kingdom with love and the power of the Holy Spirit. I am with you and I bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call." Nothing seemed to be said about the daily apparitions which visionary Marija was to be having during her days in Sacramento, as to either the messages, or what was the experience of Sacramentans who might have been present with Marija during her monthly or daily apparitions which were to occur during her presence in Sacramento.

Father Robert Faricy is a popular Medjugorje speaker who can best be described as a "comedian." He gave two talks and had the audience roaring with laughter at times, drawing the audience into his joking repartee. He enjoyed providing interactive activities and had the audience, many of whom were infirm and aging, stand and repeat after him, various exhortations and prayers, or religious songs. Drums, guitars and bongos along with a group of charismatic singers provided background to the songs. "There are people who are really bothered by evil spirits. There are probably (given the crowd of about 1700-1800) 90-110 people here right now who are troubled by evil spirits. We are going to get rid of them right now. They want you to hate yourself. Stand and please pray with me. I renounce...." The audience then repeated a type of prayer, after Father Faricy. At the end of the prayer he told everyone to sit. "Let me tell you what happened. About 60 or 70 of you, give or take six or seven, felt something leave, or you feel better now. We kicked them (the evil spirits) out."

Father Faricy took on the individual problems of those in the audience, pointing out that someone was thinking of suicide, someone had a problem with alcoholism, two needed to stop smoking and should right then take the cigarettes out of their pocket or purse and kick them under the seat. Another had a serious eating problem especially with sweets, like chocolate. There were also people with internet pornography addictions, and "someone here with a clinical case of depression. Take your medicine. See your doctor. You are healed. You know that, don't you." Father Faricy made the point that his books were for sale in the bookstore and that he would autograph those purchased by the attendees. He would not, however, he stated, autograph those written by others.

Sister Janija Boras, after receiving the birthday greetings of the group, gave a talk about her history and some information on the visionaries. She exhorted everyone to pray three hours a day and fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and did cover some spiritual topics. She stated she knows that the apparitions of Mary are authentic and that Mary continues to appear in Medjugorje because the visionaries are "normal" people. That is "100% pure proof" to her.

Sister Boras joined in assisting Fiat Voluntas Tua travel agency with promotional information on Medjugorje. Although she was urging people to fast and not eat so many different kinds of food, and stick with drinking water (except, this doesn't apply to coffee since she enjoys coffee, she joked), and not have so many kind of clothes in their closets, etc., she then segued into touting for and providing advice on visiting Medjugorje: "A practical reason, when you go to Medjugorje -- and I believe you will go -- don't take too much clothes. Take something that will keep you warm, good sneakers, and raincoats. Dress, you can do without. Anyway, it will get dirty. Climbing mountains, sitting on the floor and so on. By the way, I encourage you to go to Medjugorje. I know you live -- you don't have too much money to spend -- but if you're working, or if you're retired, you're entitled to go on a vacation. Instead of cruising to Caribbeans or Hawaii, you will spend less in Medjugorje and you will have both vacations, a spiritual and a physical one."

Wayne Weible touted travel to Medjugorje. In his second talk he exhorted everyone: "I say to all of you, if you pray, feel the call, go to Medjugorje. Take your families to Medjugorje. Send your young people, or if you're a young person yourself, go.... As Father said to you yesterday early, we need to go. We don't need to stop going to Medjugorje. And it's not a matter of trying to accumulate the number of times you've been there. I've never wasted a trip [he has made at least 32] to Medjugorje. There's always been a purpose and a reason for going. Go! Take those in your family who need it the most. And, if you can't go, practice it here; live it here; distribute the information. Let people know." These comments served to highlight what he had said the day before about Fatima: "There's another apparition that's important to Medjugorje and I would go so far to say it's -- this Medjugorje apparition -- a continuation of the Fatima message ... maybe a step further -- the fulfillment of the secrets of Fatima."

The Medjugorje visionary Marija was the star of the conference and she gave two performances, one Saturday at 3:45 p.m. and the second talk on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. She spoke, not in her native Croatian, but in Italian with her Italian husband Paolo Lunetti standing by her side and translating into English -- even though it was apparent that she understood and responded to comments or questions in English before they were translated into Italian. The charm that modern visionaries such as Marija have in entertaining and provoking much laughter from their audiences seems to be based on their casual and folksy descriptions of their familiar and relationships and communications with God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and various Angels and Saints who seem to be their virtually daily social communicants.

Marija's second session was a question-and-answer period. During the conference Father Shipp had pointed out that questions could be prepared for Marija and she would answer them at the second talk. The questions were collected at one of the conference volunteer's table. Although it seemed that there would be many questions from a crowd that at its peak was about 2000, there were only about a dozen posed. Father Shipp brought out the Lunettis for the session by introducing Marija again, and her "wonderful, wonderful Italian husband." The questions covered such topics as to what days to fast and how to do it (Wednesday and Friday, bread and water), how not to be distracted at prayer, how to raise children to be good Catholics, what are Mary's comments on the end of the world (she has none), and what do angels look like (they have wings, are beautiful, wear long dresses, are different sizes and ages -- like children and grownups -- and either 2, 3, or 5 normally accompany Mary).

The last question led to a particularly unsettling portion of the conference. The question, read by Paolo Lunetti, asked what Mary had said about Purgatory. Marija stated that Mary never talked about Purgatory to them. Marija then tossed in as an aside that she wanted to go directly to Paradise. She added that what they have learned about Purgatory and Paradise they learned by being with priests and nuns.

This exposed another gross contradiction in the Medjugorje messages. A Queen of Peace newspaper format publication for May 2000 from the "Pittsburgh Center For Peace" was being distributed at the Sacramento conference and on page 19, it says that Marija "has seen Purgatory" and has a quotation of Marija Pavlovic Lunetti's answer in the book Queen of the Cosmos to the author, Janice T. Connell's question: "Would you tell us about Purgatory?" Marija's reported answer occupies about six column inches, beginning with: "Yes, Purgatory is a large place. It is foggy. It is ash gray. It is misty. You cannot see people there...." There is even a pull-quote in large print on page 19 of Marija's description of Purgatory.

Marija has admitted in a statement in Croatian bearing her signature that she lied when she said the Madonna had endorsed the establishment of a coed religious community in Italy founded by Agnes Heupel, who claimed to have been healed at Medjugorje and Medjugorje Franciscan Father Tomislav Vlasic, who had conceived a child with a religious Sister Rufina.

Back on the Sacramento stage, since they said there were no more questions, the Lunettis pronounced: "we will tell a joke." "Jesus was in Paradise. The Apostles were a bit bored being in Paradise for such a long time, as we sometimes say we will get bored in Paradise. Jesus said, 'Let's go for a tour on the earth.' And they thought where are we going. Are we going to go to California or Medjugorje, or somewhere else? And they couldn't decide so they said it's better if we go back to the places we know, so they went to Palestine -- the Holy Land. So they went and they decided to have a barbecue on the beach, on the lake, with fresh fish. And they were very happy, so they went and lit up the fire and fished the fish. And since they were in Paradise where they had no more faith but they were completely sure about what they could do -- they had perfect faith, we could say -- they were all walking on the water. And so also Jesus went on the water but he started to go down -- to sink. So he starts thinking to himself: 'What's wrong with me? I'm Jesus. This is impossible. I'm sinking.' And then Peter saw him, got close to him and said: 'Rabbi, you forgot, your feet have holes.'" Lunetti added after the joke: "So we can have fun with those little things. We can laugh with Jesus." A short time later Lunetti asked if the audience wanted to hear another joke. Some affirmative responses could be heard. The joke: "Little Jesus was in heaven, but he was crying and crying. The saints and the angels were worried and asked him what was wrong. Jesus answered that his mother had left him again, and had gone down to Medjugorje without him."

Holy Mass was celebrated at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon. Other than the priests who were involved in the weekend events, only two Sacramento diocesan priests were celebrants. The main celebrant was one of these: Bishop William K. Weigand, ordinary of the Sacramento diocese since February of 1994. The bishop read a prepared sermon of just over 10 minutes and led a prayer of consecration to Our Blessed Mother. He never mentioned Medjugorje and almost as an afterthought stated he understood that there had been some very good talks presented. Ironically the sermon mentioned the need to be obedient to the bishop.

The conference program segment which profiled Sister Janja stated at the end that she is "currently in the process of building an orphanage for poor and orphaned girls." Prior to the collection at Mass, it was announced that Bishop Weigand had agreed that the collection could be given to the mission of building the orphanage. Checks were to be made out to the Mostar Franciscan Community/Orphanage. Volunteers with plastic buckets took up the collection, which seemed to be a lot of white checks with some green bills. After the presentation of gifts, the same lady who had delivered Mary's message to the audience could be seen walking up the main aisle of the auditorium holding a tapestry patterned overnight travel case. She went to the side of the stage and carried the travel case up to the foot of the altar and placed it there.

Another theme throughout the conference was the emphasis on the holiness of priests, their welfare, and the need to pray for them, and never to criticize. Several speakers mentioned support for priests. This fits in with the words found in Lynn Hoffman's handouts and on her website. She refers to her business as "A Non-Profit Organization For The Spiritual Support of Priests." The emphasis on priests also has a practical aspect for Hoffman. Her website states, "Since 1998 one bishop and seventy-five priests have accepted our invitation to go to Medjugorje free of charge. We also organize retreats for priests with free room and board." Her Medjugorje promotional material shows as one item in the travel package "Priest/Spiritual Director." What better way to authenticate as a true pilgrimage, a trip that boasts its own priest.

Fiat Voluntas Tua's web site offers guidelines for how to prepare for a trip to Medjugorje. In addition to suggestions about clothing to take -- backpack, fanny belt, bottled water, snacks, flashlight, etc. -- Lynn Hoffman offers this suggestion regarding money: Bring enough money for your lunches and spending money. You may want to bring extra money for the church or your host family. Taxis are $4.00. The shops in Medjugorje accept American money. Some will take travelers checks and credit cards. Recommended amount $300-$500 depending on how much a shopper you are!" Additional cautions: "Be flexible in a spirit of sacrifice!"

At the end of the conference Father Shipp thanked everyone on behalf of Lynn Hoffman. She spoke for a short while, thanking everyone for the wonderful conference.

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