Donal Anthony Foley > Quotes

“The Papacy attempted to deal with this movement by sending out missionaries, originally Dominicans in 1240, and then Franciscans a century later, in 1340. But it was only in the mid-fifteenth century that the campaign to uproot the heresy began to really bear fruit, and those local Church leaders who refused to recant were forced to emigrate. But despite this, a legacy of Bogomil influence was left in which the local Church was not closely linked to the Papacy, and this was to sow the seeds of future problems.[2]”
― Donal Anthony Foley, Medjugorje Revisited: 30 Years of Visions or Religious Fraud?

“By 1975, the situation had become so serious that the Holy See issued a special decree—Romanis Pontificibus—demanding their obedience on this matter; but the Franciscans continued their resistance, and in consequence were penalized with various disciplinary measures. Hence, at the time of the Medjugorje visions, they were in a state of active disobedience to both the local Bishop and Rome, and clearly this was not a happy portent for the future. But in fairness to the Franciscans, it should be said that they had maintained the Faith in Bosnia-Herzegovina during four hundred years of Muslim persecution, when it was cut off from the mainstream Catholic world, and so it is understandable that a spirit of self-reliance should have developed amongst them. The tragedy was that self-reliance turned into stubbornness, and stubbornness into open disobedience.”
― Donal Anthony Foley, Medjugorje Revisited: 30 Years of Visions or Religious Fraud?

“In 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina were liberated from the Turkish yoke, and came under Habsburg rule. Three years later Pope Leo XIII issued a bull establishing the authority of the secular clergy, and a new hierarchy was set up, with the Franciscans of Bosnia and Herzegovina losing their privileged position. This is the modern origin of the disputes between the Franciscans and the secular clergy, which have dominated Church life in Bosnia-Herzegovina in recent years, the so-called “Herzegovina problem.”
― Donal Anthony Foley, Medjugorje Revisited: 30 Years of Visions or Religious Fraud?