Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was interviewed and questioned about Medjugorje in what became known as The Ratzinger Report. Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of the policy of the Congregation in regards to Medjugorje and other apparitions:
“In this area, more than ever, patience is the fundamental principle of the policy of our Congregation. No apparition is indispensable to the faith; Revelation terminated with Jesus Christ. He himself is the Revelation. But we certainly cannot prevent God from speaking to our time through simple persons and also through extraordinary signs that point to the insufficiency of the cultures stamped by rationalism and positivism that dominate us. The apparitions that the Church has officially approved-especially Lourdes and Fatima, have their precise place in the development of the life of the Church in the last century. They show, among other things, that Revelation, still unique, concluded and therefore unsurpassable, is not yet a dead thing but something alive and vital. Moreover, prescinding Medjugorje, on which I cannot express a judgment since the case is still being examined by the Congregation-one of the signs of our times is that the announcements of ‘Marian apparitions’ are multiplying all over the world.â€
