If the Catholic Church recognises as "worthy of belief" only the initial alleged apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje, it would be the first time the Church distinguished between phases of a single event, a theological expert in Mariology has said.
Fr Salvatore Perrella, president of the Pontifical Institute Marianum and a member of the commission that Benedict XVI established to study the Medjugorje case, said that although Pope Francis has not yet made a formal pronouncement on the presumed apparitions, "he thought it was a good idea to clear some of the fog."
