OUR QUEEN OF PROFIT
Fr Pavich, a Franciscan priest who used to promote the Medjugorje cause had his fill and now complains about it:
“Some wealthy Croat tour leader will put down 80,000 bucks, build a house for a visionary, and then she'll sucker her pilgrims into coming by saying "When you come you'll get to stay with a visionary," said Pavich, who noted the beauty of the visionaries' houses. "They're a scandal to a lot of people because they (the visionaries) are in on the take - big time."
From “Medjugorje’s Miracles: Faith and Profit” by Denis R. Janz
“… Many of Medjugorje’s American visitors come from the affluent upper-middle class. One of the results is that travel agents get rich from this religious event, while churches face financial crises. In Medjugorje I met the owner of an American travel agency. This was her 11th trip to the hill; her agency had already led 8,000 people there. She allowed as how God had worked in a marvelous way, influencing ABC network executives to broadcast nationally its New Orleans affiliate station’s report on Medjugorje. For after that, her business grew enormously, with no end in sight.
But more important, for American visitors Mary’s message at Medjugorje is a comfortable one: she affirms that God exists, and she instructs them to pray devoutly. Many of these affluent Americans leave with the conviction that Mary has now come to save the world from socialism -- thus sanctioning the economic system which has allowed them to accumulate their wealth, and leaving undisturbed their pleasant way of life.
I do not know whether healing takes place on this hill. But I wonder what kind of God would heal the aches and pains of rich Americans while turning a deaf ear to the cries of starving children elsewhere in the world. I share with all those who visit Medjugorje the devout wish that there would be help for us there. I, too, know people who are sick and dying, who suffer the anguish of mental illness, who are filled with fear and doubt, who long for a spark of warmth in a cold and heartless world, who search for an intimation of immortality. But in the final analysis, I am afraid that for these things there is little help in Medjugorje. Real hope, I think, lies elsewhere, at another cross on another hill."
