In a post published on the portal of the "Cittadella Editrice" on Tuesday, he accuses the bishop emeritus of Carpi of appearing in an interview like the "PR manager" of the place of pilgrimage rather than an Apostolic Visitator.
In an interview with Il Timone magazine, published only in parts on Monday, for which he has been writing for years, Cavina welcomed the Vatican's decision of 2024 to officially allow the pilgrimages to Medjugorje.
He referred to numerous conversions and other spiritual fruits. He described the alleged Mary’s messages as edifying and compatible with Catholic teaching.
No reservations whatsoever
Grillo, on the other hand, criticizes the tone of the interview as apologetic and "naively enthusiastic."
Unlike the note of the Vatican dicastery of 2024, Cavina expresses no reservations about the alleged seers or the contradictions in the messages. Instead, he gives the impression of approval and downplays the Vatican's reservations.
However, the theologian already sees the Vatican note itself as a fundamental problem, as he writes in his post. The note puts the positive spiritual fruits of Medjugorje on the question of the credibility of the messages and their origins. Thus, the necessary church examination threatens to fade into the background.
The task of an Apostolic Visitor should not be confused with that of a conveyor of the place of pilgrimage, warns Grillo. Otherwise, Cavina's appointment would be a sign of a "grave disinterest of Rome" in a serious investigation of the phenomenon. Especially the visitator must provide the necessary distinction on site.
"However, an unleashed Apostolic Visitator is a contradiction in terms," according to the theologian, who has been teaching sacrament theology and religious philosophy on the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome since 1994.
Pope Leo XIV had appointed the 71-year-old Cavina as an Apostolic Visitor for the Marian pilgrimage site in Bosnia-Herzegovina over the weekend. He served in the Vatican Secretariat of State from 1996 to 2011, and in 2012 he was appointed Bishop of Carpi in central Italy.
In 2019, he resigned from the leadership of the diocese after allegations of corruption. The allegations, however, proved unfounded, according to the prosecutor's office.