Vaticanistas contradict each other on Medjugorje

When it comes to controversies about and within the Roman Catholic Church, it's often hard to know who to believe. What's going on inside the Vatican? One "Vaticanista" tells you one thing. Another tells you another. So it has been, this week, with the alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje.

The authenticity of the "seers" claims that Our Lady visits them regularly was cast into doubt by the bishops of what was then Yugoslavia in 1991, and has been investigated by a special commission of the Vatican ever since. On Thursday, Walt passed on a report by Vatican journalist Gianluca Batile, who averred that a meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith held on June 24th had found that the Medjugorje sitings were not of supernatural origin, and had made a negative report to the Pope.

Now, noted Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli -- quoted here as an authority more than once in the past -- has, in his Vatican Insider blog, denied that the CDF has issued its report, or even met to discuss the findings of the special commission chaired by Camillo Cardinal Ruini.

Citing "authoritative Congregation sources", Sig. Tornielli reports that the Medjugorje issue was not discussed at the most recent feria quarta meeting of the prelates who are members of the CDF. He goes on to say that their next meeting will not be scheduled until the fall, possibly after the meeting of the Synod of Bishops coming up in October.

The timing of the feria quarta has been a subject of confusing reports. Earlier this month, Pope Francis had seemed to indicate that the meeting may already have taken place, although, in his usual vague manner, said that he was not sure of the timing. Then Fr. Federico Lombardi -- director of the Vatican press office and chief flak-catcher for the Pope -- told reporters that he did not expect a decision from the CDF for "a few months".

So who knows? If I were a betting man, I'd go with Sig. Tornielli's account, and I'll tell you why. There are so many Catholics who believe fervently in the authenticity of Medjugorje that for the Vatican to deny it now would cause yet more Catholics to become disaffected with the mainstream Church and join the ranks of the traditionalist dissidents. QED.