The Spirit of Medjugorje

"Dear children, in this time of grace when you are called to conversion, I am encouraging you, little children: offer me your prayers, sufferings and tears for conversion of hearts that are far from the Heart of my Son Jesus. Pray with me, because, little children, without God you do not have a future or eternal life. I love you, but I cannot help you without you; therefore, say 'yes' to God. Thank you for having responded to my call. (With Ecclesiastical approval)"

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Father Jozo's Arrest

     In August of 1981, Fr. Jozo Zovko, the parish priest in Medjugorje at the time, was arrested. The following is excerpted with permission from the book, Twilight of Marxism: Medjugorje, The Downfall of Systematic Evil, and the Fulfillment of the Secret of Fatima by Dr. Thomas Petrisko.
     With the arrest of Jozo, the entire parish of Medjugorje fell into a deep and dark depression, one that is revealed in the parish ledger:
     "When the bell rang for Mass, the church filled up in dead silence. The people were looking at the set faces of the priests and nuns, the scattered altar cloths, overturned vases, wideopen cupboards all around. When Father Zrinko came to the altar to address the people, he could hardly speak: 'This is the hardest day of my life,' he said, and everyone began crying. During Mass they tried to sing, but they gagged on the words. The sisters said they couldn't bring themselves to say the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, and said the Sorrowful ones instead.
     "At the end of the Mass, in the middle of the seven Our Fathers, the visionaries stopped dead, and hurried to the side room opposite the sacristy. There was a hush, prayerful and expectant, and all eyes were fixed on the door where the children were. Then, Jacov came to the microphone, ' Our Lady called us into that room where She was waiting for us. She told us to tell you: 'Don't be afraid. I want you to be happy and to let joy show on your faces. I shall look after Father Jozo.'''
     Television news that evening out of Sarajevo reported the arrest. The newscaster announced that Jozo, Bishop Zanic, and others were extremists and that they gravely abused religious freedom under the guise of advancing and restoring the Ustasi.
     Once Jozo was in custody, the authorities proceeded to torture him.
     A resident of Medjugorje, Mladen Bulic, crossed paths with Jozo in a hospital somewhere around the end of August. He later presented a written testimony of what he learned concerning the friar's confinement in jail:

Fr. Jozo in 2008

     "In the middle of August 1981, I had been hospitalized for throat problems for five days. On August 25, I was at my bedroom window. I saw a militia car. Two policemen came out, holding my parish priest, Father Jozo, dressed in civilian clothes. I hurried down the stairs to greet him because a week before he had been incarcerated. On the stairs, I met Father Jozo with two policemen.
     "I moved towards him to shake his hand, but the two policemen pushed me away nervously. I noticed that the small group had stopped in the hallway, while waiting for a patient to leave the doctor's office. Father Jozo's ears were bleeding. Seeing how he was walking, I thought he would stay in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
     "I got closer and asked him, 'How are you doing?' He turned towards me with a smile and said, 'You see.' Looking at his smile, I saw that teeth were missing. The right cheek was swollen. They had beaten him savagely.
     "One of the policemen came to me and said, 'If you keep on talking, we will beat you too.' I did not let them intimidate me. I answered, 'You cannot do anything. I am a patient, and I have a right to be here!'
     "Father Jozo went into the doctor's office with the policemen. When he came out, he asked me, 'How are things going in Medjugorje?' I answered, 'All is well. Do not worry.'
     "A policeman said, 'There is nothing to worry about because tonight we will cut his head off.' I answered, 'You cannot do anything to him; you were able to beat him up; you cannot kill him.'
     "At that point, Father Jozo turned his head and told me to be silent because it was dangerous to talk.
     "Afterwards, I learned about ten days later, the policeman who had beaten him up died of a heart attack. The main policeman was telling Fr. Jozo that he was an enemy of the state and the government, and that he would be worn thin, and they would get him a little bit at a time. The policeman had chained him and put weights on his arms and legs to hurt him. But when in the morning, they came back to take Father Jozo, they found him freed of his chains; and his cell, which did not have a lamp, was illuminated."
     When finally brought to trial in October, Jozo's charges were threefold.
     Through his sermons, the Franciscan priest was said to be repeatedly referring to the Israelites' forty years in the desert as a symbolic reference to Communism's forty-year rule in Yugoslavia.
     He also, in declaring it sometimes necessary to shed one's blood for the faith, was accused of using doublespeak to incite violence against the regime.
     Lastly, Jozo was charged with promulgating the rise of religion in Croatia and Herzegovina as a path to power, once again, in opposition to the state and the people.
     All of these charges, eighteen witnesses for the prosecution testified, proved Jozo was the mastermind behind the apparition hoax in Medjugorje.
     Three hundred and thirty people volunteered to speak on behalf of Jozo, all were denied. No theological experts were permitted to explain Jozo's reference to the forty years in the desert cited in his homilies. And a request for the taped sermons to be played in court was not permitted.
     Not surprisingly, the trumped-up charges prevailed in the court proceedings against Jozo. Alarmed by the restlessness in Poland brought about by the Catholic Lech Wałęsa and his Solidarity movement, the Communist government in Yugoslavia wanted to ensure it showed no weakness in dealing with its own Catholic revolutionaries.
     On October 22, 1981, Father Jozo Zovko was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment.
     The court - in order to show its rationale side - ordered the money taken from Saint James's coffers to be returned.
     Through Jozo's arrest and conviction, the Communist authorities in Yugoslavia intended to bring an end to Medjugorje.
     But it proved to be only the beginning. Like the suffering of so many martyrs in Church history that have mystically seeded a greater cause at hand, Jozo's plight was the spiritual fuel used to take Medjugorje to the next level.
     In fact, by the fall of 1981, no longer would Medjugorje be just a pilgrimage for the homespun of Yugoslavia. As word spread about the sanctuary of miracles in Herzegovina, nothing seemed to dissuade travelers from all over Europe - regardless of so many obvious impediments.
     Editor's note: Fr. Jozo was released early from jail in February of 1983, after serving 18 months of hard labor.