HOLY SEE'S EXPRESSES ITS INTERPRETATION OF MEDJUGORJE

( Editorial: --> 2832 ) ROME, Sept 24 (Hina) - New investigations need to be conducted into the alleged apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje (southern Bosnia- Herzegovina), the Italian Bishops' Conference magazine "Avvenire" wrote on Thursday. The magazine referred to a letter written by the secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Monsignor Tercisio Bertone, to the French bishop in Saint Denise le Reuinion. In his letter to Bishop Gilbert Aubry who had asked for an explanation on Medjugorje, Monsignor Bertone says that the attitude "by the Bishop of Mostar needs to be considered as personal and by no means the official and final sentence of the Church". The office for which Bertone is the secretary holds that the decision passed by the then Bishops' Conference in Zadar, Croatia on April 10, 1991 was still valid. The Conference had then decided that the events in Medjugorje could not be considered as supernatural. The Office recommended however that the Bishops' Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina take over all the documentation and bring an objective judgement about the alleged apparitions which began in 1981 in Medjugorje. In his letter, Bertone confirmed that private pilgrimages to Medjugorje were to be allowed as long as these were not related to supernatural events. (Hina) sp /mbr 241734 MET sep 98