Jozo Zovko

Jozo Zovko, OFM (born 19 March 1941) is a Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan priest, most notable for being a parish priest in Medjugorje during the alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. He was very active in the promotion of apparitions around the world. He is an adherent of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Zovko is currently under a suspension imposed on him by his bishops in 1989, 1994 and 2004 for disobedience and is forbidden to perform priestly duties in his home Diocese of Mostar-Duvno.

Zovko was ordained a priest as a Franciscan in 1965. During the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje in 1981, he was the parish priest of the St. James Church and became the first supporter and mentor of the visionaries.

The same year he was sentenced to three years in prison because of a sermon allegedly criticising the communist authorities, which Zovko denied. After being released in 1983, he became a vicar in Tihaljina near Grude, but remained in close touch with Medjugorje. It is claimed by the visionaries of Our Lady of Medjugorje, that the Virgin gave them a vision of Zovko while in prison in October 1981. Zovko claims to have had a vision of Our Lady in April 1983.

The Bishop revoked his priestly jurisdiction because of disobedience and his activity in Medjugorje, a decree soon afterward confirmed by Rome in 1989. However, Zovko continued to be active in Medjugorje and around the world, promoting the apparitions, despite the suspension. He finally submitted to the decree under pressure from Rome, and moved to a Franciscan friary in Badija near Korčula in Croatia in 2009, and periodically lived in Graz, Austria, until he moved permanently to Zagreb, Croatia's capital in 2011, where he currently lives. Provided by Wikipedia