Cardinal Ruini, who chaired the Medjugorje investigation commission, is discharged

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar Emeritus of Rome, former president of the Italian episcopate and who chaired the Medjugorje investigation commission, was discharged on July 15 after being hospitalized on the 6th due to cardiac ischemia.

According to reports Vatican Newsthe 93-year-old Italian cardinal was discharged on Monday afternoon, after having been implanted with “a pacemaker to stabilize his heart rhythm,” a procedure that “was successfully performed by a team of cardiologists from the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.

Ruini, who was created cardinal more than 33 years ago, during the pontificate of Saint John Paul II, will continue his convalescence at home.

The Medjugorje Commission of Inquiry

In March 2010, the Vatican reported the creation of an international commission of inquiry into Medjugorje, subject to the Congregation – today the Dicastery – for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

Cardinal Ruini was placed at the head of that commission, along with other cardinals, bishops, experts and experts, to work in a reserved manner. In January 2014 the commission delivered its final report, which was not made public.

In June 2015, the Italian Vaticanist Gianluca Barile leaked the Vatican’s decision on the alleged apparitions of the Virgin of Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina, pointing out that these would not be supernatural events; but that the faithful would be allowed to continue making pilgrimages to the sanctuary of the so-called “Gospa.”

What Pope Francis said about Medjugorje

In February 2017, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Henryk Hoser as “special envoy” to Medjugorje with an “exclusively pastoral” objective.

In May of that same year the Holy Father referred to the issue and said that “”all apparitions or alleged apparitions belong to the private sphere, they are not part of the ordinary public teaching of the Church.”

Pope Francis said that in the case of Medjugorje “three things must be distinguished: the first apparitions, that (the visionaries) were boys. The report more or less says that this must continue to be investigated.”

Regarding the “alleged current apparitions,” the Pope continued, “the report has its doubts.” “I personally am worse, I prefer the Virgin Mother, our Mother and not the Virgin Head of the Telegraph Office, who sends a message every day at such and such an hour. This is not the Mother of Jesus,” he continued.

“These alleged appearances do not have that much value, and I say this as a personal opinion, but it is clear,” he said.