DAY TWELVE

No photos today. Just a relaxing day, packing and preparing myself for two full days of travelling. So I'm just going to leave the blog with excerpts of what other people of said about Medjugore in the past, particularly at a time when the phenomena were quite new.

On the basis of studies made so far, it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparition or revelation.

Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar

(They are) collective hallucinations cleverly exploited by a group of unscrupulous Franciscans.

Bishop Peric's predecessor at Mostar, Bishop Pavao Zanic.

As one of our young technicians said, 'I don't know what the hell's going on here; but something certainly is'.  It was not the most thorough-going vote of confidence, but it probably summed up what most of the team felt.

Mary Craig, "Spark From Heaven".

There is no deception of the visionaries who are in fact experiencing some abnormal changes during the time of their apparitions.

Fr. Rene Laurentin, noted French theologian and Mariologist.

If I were not Pope, I would be in Medjugorje a long time ago. I know everything, I have been following everything. Ask pilgrims to pray for my intentions. And take good care of Medjugorje because Medjugorje is the hope for the entire world.

Pope John Paul II.

The reporting of these facts by a multitude of eye-witnesses representative of diverse nationalities, age groups, backgrounds and cultures adds up to evidence which is credit worthy for being so convergent and compelling.

British Jesuit Richard Foley SJ.

Clinical observation has also excluded hallucinatory phenomena, as well as habitual signs of epilepsy or of any other malfunction capable of producing altered states of consciousness. There are no symptoms which would suggest that the subjects are living out something previously suggested under hypnosis. The visionaries can recall with absolute lucidity what has happened to them...[They] retain perfect consciousness of heir own identity. 

Dr Enzo Gabrici, neuropsychiatrist.

...the phenomenon...is scientifically inexplicable...The visionaries of Medjugorje are not drop-outs or dreamers, nor are they tired or anxious; they are free and happy, at home in their country and in the modern world...The ecstasies are not pathological, nor is there any element of deceit. No scientific discipline seems able to describe these phenomena. We would be quite willing to define them as a state of active, intense prayer, partially disconnected from the outside world, a state of contemplation with a separate person whom they alone can see, hear and touch.

Professor Henri Joyeux, Professor of Cancerology, Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier and surgeon at Montpellier's Cancer Institute.

Ecstasy for these young people is invincible and spontaneous -- and authentic. Normally an emotional stimulus provokes an immediate, though possibly brief, reaction from an individual. But in the present case, neither normally painful stimuli, nor a nylon thread in the eye, nor any of the other experiments provoked any reaction at all. In every case, the (metaphorical) telephone rang for someone who wasn't there. We must therefore be dealing with an authentic ecstasy.

Professor Margnelli, neuro-psysiologist specialising in the study of ecstasy.