- Tue May 16, 2017 4:49 pm
#229784
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the Seven Apparitions which the Medjugorje Commission has endorsed is probably a reference to the first seven days of the phenomenon and the taped interviews with the visionaries.
There is a transcript of these interviews, or at least 22 of them, that were carried out during the first week, published by Fr James Mulligan in his book, Medjugorje: The First Days. I have a copy and highly recommend it. It’s available via the link below.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/MEDJUG ... 1490389083
There is a transcript of these interviews, or at least 22 of them, that were carried out during the first week, published by Fr James Mulligan in his book, Medjugorje: The First Days. I have a copy and highly recommend it. It’s available via the link below.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/MEDJUG ... 1490389083
Medjugorje: The First Days – written and compiled by James Mulligan, a Roman Catholic priest serving in the Archdiocese of Westminster in London – presents a very detailed chronological account of the Medjugorje phenomenon as it unfolded over the crucial first few days. Meticulous research has resulted in a graphic and absorbing account of the beginning of the claimed apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje.
The book contains, for the first time in any language, a full, un-redacted transcript of 22 tape recorded interviews and on-the-spot commentaries with the visionaries. The interviews and commentaries were recorded during the first week of the apparitions and the transcripts provide quite compelling evidence which strongly points to the authenticity of the Medjugorje phenomenon. The book is lavishly illustrated with many never before published photos.
The basis of this first account of the first seven days of the claimed apparitions at Medjugorje is the transcription of the translation from Croatian of 22 tape-recorded interviews/on-the-spot commentaries with the alleged visionaries. All the recordings were completed within the first seven days of the alleged apparitions and provide invaluable source material.
The recordings were carried out by the Franciscan priests of Medjugorje – mainly the parish priest, Fr Jozo Zovko – and by a parishioner, Grgo Kozina. The bulk of the recordings were confiscated by the Yugoslav State Security Police when they raided the Medjugorje parish rectory on August 17, 1981, but fortunately copies have been made. These copies have found their way all around the world and only now has the opportunity come to have them all collected.
Snippets of transcriptions from these recordings have been published sporadically – but this is the first time that all the material has been collated, translated and published. In 1988 a Medjugorje-born Franciscan priest, the late Fr Ivo Sivric, who was then living in Canada, published, translated a substantial tranche of the recordings into French, in his book La face cache de Medjugorje. This was a valiant attempt, and his translation is basically sound, but Fr Sivric was hindered by a large amount of the material being missing and was also frequently flummoxed, it seems, by the modern day terms and the colloquial expressions of the young visionaries.
These transcriptions are a treasure from many angles. They provide a very graphic, on-the-spot- description of those fast-moving, unprecedented events of June 1981, and they leave the reader in no doubt of the absolute conviction of the young visionaries that are seeing Our Lady. As might be expected in the ad hoc and un-choreographed manner in which the recordings took place, there are some moments of confusion – but such moments are rare and there is a remarkable consistency and coherence to the visionaries’ narration of events.
The steadfast conviction of these young people that are seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary shines through against the backdrop of outright hostility from the Communist State authorities and the scepticism, at the time, of the Franciscan priests in the Medjugorje parish, and points strongly to the authenticity of Medjugorje.
