Pope Benedict XVI has personally intervened in the laicisation of the first and principal promoter of worldwide devotion to Our Lady of Medjugorje, and expelled him from the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor.

The announcement of the Pope’s intervention came in a letter from the OFM Minister General Fr Jose Rodriguez Carballo, dated 10 March but made public on the internet in August.

According to a notice posted last year on the website of the local Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, charges against Vlasic, 67, included “diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism, disobedience towards legitimately issued orders and charges contra sextum [sexual sins]”.