VATICAN CITY, APRIL 13, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican has announced the members of an international investigative commission looking into the reported apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje.
A statement from the Vatican press office today reported that the commission met for its first session March 26. The Vatican had announced the existence of the commission March 17.
Today’s statement also listed the members of the group, which is presided over by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the retired vicar of Rome.
The members are:
— Cardinal Jozef Tomko, retired prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples;
— Cardinal Vinko Puljic, archbishop of Vrhbosna, president of the episcopal conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina;
— Cardinal Josip Bozanic, archbishop of Zagreb and vice-president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences;
— Cardinal Julián Herranz, retired president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts;
— Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes;
— Monsignor Tony Anatrella, psychoanalyst and specialist in social psychiatry;
— Monsignor Pierangelo Sequeri, professor of fundamental theology at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy;
— Franciscan Father David Jaeger, consultant to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts;
— Conventual Franciscan Father Zdzislaw Jozef Kijas, relator of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes;
— Servant of Mary Father Salvatore Perrella, teacher of mariology at the Pontifical Marianum Faculty of Theology.
Father Achim Schutz, professor of theological anthropology at the Pontifical Lateran University, serves as secretary; and Monsignor Krzysztof Nykiel, an officer of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, serves as additional secretary.
The statement reported other experts have also participated in the commission’s work:
— Father Franjo Topic, professor of fundamental theology in Sarajevo;
— Jesuit Father Mijo Nikic, professor of psychology and psychology of religion at the Philosophical and Theological Institute of the Society of Jesus in Zagreb,
— Jesuit Father Mihaly Szentmartoni, professor of spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University,
— and Sister Veronica Nela Gaspar, professor of theology at Rijeka.
The Vatican statement reiterated that «the work of the commission will be carried out with the utmost reserve. Its conclusions will be submitted to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for study.»
