Pavol Hnilica

Pavol Mária Hnilica, S.J. (30 March 1921 – 8 October 2006) was a Slovak prelate of the Catholic Church who served as a titular bishop of Rusadir from 1964 until his death in 2006.

The Most Reverend

Pavol Mária Hnilica

S.J.
Titular Bishop of Rusadir
ChurchCatholic Church
DioceseRusadir
Installed13 May 1964
Term ended8 October 2006
PredecessorJoseph Howard Hodges
SuccessorPascal Wintzer
Orders
Ordination29 September 1950
by Robert Pobožný
Consecration2 January 1951
by Robert Pobožný
Personal details
Born(1921-03-30)30 March 1921
Uňatín, Czechoslovakia
Died8 October 2006(2006-10-08) (aged 85)
Rome, Italy
NationalitySlovak
DenominationCatholic

Biography

Hnilica was born in Uňatín. He was ordained a priest on 29 September 1950 and was secretly consecrated as bishop three months later on 2 January 1951.[1] He helped Ján Chryzostom Korec to be secretly ordained as a priest by another Slovak bishop and for the next several months traveled around Slovakia ordaining priests. In June 1951, a warrant was issued for his arrest, so he started making plans to leave the country.[2] On 24 August 1951, he consecrated Korec as bishop to replace him.[3]

Pope Paul VI appointed him a bishop only on 13 May 1964 giving him the title of titular bishop of Rusadir.[1] In 1968, with the support from the Pope, he founded the Pia Unione Pro Fratribus, now known as the Family of Mary. The organisation was dedicated to providing material and spiritual help to the churches of Eastern Europe persecuted by the communists.[4]

David Yallop claims that during the 1980s, Hnilica laundered money out of Medjugorje in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.[5] After the Bosnian War caused the decline in the financial revenues in Medjugorje, Hnilica tried to create the "Medjugorje of America" by contacting Theresa Lopez, an alleged seer of Mary, mother of Jesus.[6] Lopez claimed that she had a vision of the Madonna at the Mother Cabrini shrine near Denver, Colorado.[7] Hnilica met with Lopez in May 1992, and she regularly claimed to have visions of the Madonna. They started touring and raised some $50 million annually.[8] However, Hnilica's and Lopez's project ended with Archbishop of Denver James Stafford's pronouncement that the visions are not of supernatural origin. Stafford formed a commission to investigate the alleged apparitions in December 1991, and the commission presented him with results in February 1994.[9]

In 1992, Hnilica was indicted of criminal involvement in the case of the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano, of which the Vatican Bank was a partial owner. According to his lawyer, Hnilica tried to obtain the stolen documents from Roberto Calvi, which were offered to him by Calvi's associate Flavio Carboni.[4][10] Carboni promised him to clear the Vatican Bank of any wrongdoing.[10][11] Hnilica was so impressed with their content that he gave two blank cheques to Carboni, which were later cashed £ 250,000 each. The funds belonged to the European aid organisation Pro Fratibus, headed by Hnilica.[4] At first, Hnilica claimed his signatures on the checks were forged, but later admitted to wrongdoing.[10] In March 1993, both Hnilica and Carboni were found guilty, but the verdict was annulled for technical reasons since "a legal document had been one day out of time." The second trial took place in March 2000, where Carboni was convicted, and Hnilica was acquitted.[12] The reason for Hnilica's acquittal was that he acted under duress.[4]

Hnilica led a web of the contested Marian movements.[13] A fervent supporter of the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, Hnilica was a member of the "Queen of Peace" Committee, along with other supporters of the Medjugorje apparitions – Tomislav Pervan, Ivan Landeka, Slavko Barbarić, Jozo Zovko and Leonard Oreč.[14] In March 1994, while in Mostar he falsely presented himself as the Pope's personal delegate.[15] He also attributed statements to Pope John Paul II supportive of Medjugorje, which were dismissed as false by the Vatican.[16]

Notes
  1. Kutleša 2001, p. 155.
  2. Doellinger 2013, p. 42.
  3. Roszkowski & Kofman 2016, p. 492.
  4. Allen 2020.
  5. Yallop 2007, p. 460.
  6. Yallop 2007, p. 462.
  7. Ostling 2001.
  8. Yallop 2007, p. 463.
  9. Silk 1998, pp. 131-132.
  10. Posner 2015, p. 372.
  11. Owen 1998.
  12. Yallop 2007, p. 464.
  13. Margry 1998, p. 194.
  14. Kutleša 2001, p. 251.
  15. Kutleša 2001, pp. 156, 251.
  16. Kutleša 2001, p. 256.

References

Books
  • Doellinger, David (2013). Turning Prayers into Protests: Religious-based Activism and its Challenge to State Power in Socialist Slovakia and East Germany. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 9786155225789.
  • Kutleša, Dražen (2001). Ogledalo pravde [Mirror of Justice] (in Croatian). Mostar: Biskupski ordinarijat Mostar.
  • Margry, Peter Jan (1998). "Paradoxes of Marian Apparitional Contestation: Networks, Ideology, Gender, and the Lady of All Nations". In Hermkens, Anna-Karina; Jansen, Willy; Notermans, Catrien (eds.). Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754667896.
  • Posner, Gerald (2015). God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416576594.
  • Roszkowski, Wojciech; Kofman, Jan, eds. (2016). Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781317475941.
  • Silk, Mark (1998). Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252067426.
  • Yallop, David (2007). The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of Pope John Paul II's Vatican. New York City: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 9781472105165.

News articles
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Joseph Howard Hodges		 Titular Bishop of Rusadir
1964–2006		 Succeeded by
Pascal Wintzer
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