Perhaps style is in question here but the Serbian newspaper Politika that introduced me to Fr. Ambrose and his wild kingdom of friends (which I posted about yesterday) also brought my attention to another religious sensation named Fr. Zlatko Sudac of Croatia. Though the article about Fr. Ambrose claims his notoriety has spread far beyond the remote monastery, it appears Fr. Zlatko is much more of a celebrity. He has, as the picture on left shows, received the stigmata on his forehead as well as on his wrists. Overall he seems like a very fascinating person. You can read an interview and brief biography about him here, while here you can listen to one of his sermons. There is a lot of hype about his guy who, besides the stigmata, has displayed other supernatural gifts such as bilocation, prophecy and healing. As strange as it may sound, I even found a site which claimed that, according to a prophecy, Fr. Zlatko would be Pope (see here), a website, and prophecy which I doubt has the blessing of the Roman Catholic Church.
One thing that he has in common with Fr. Ambrose is that they are both musicians. While Fr. Ambrose says he plays from time to time F
r. Zlatko has pursued his love for music a little further. He has recorded an album. That’s what the newspaper article said but when I did a search I found out that in reality he only sang a few of the songs. At any rate, the ablum cover (pictured on right) is a little strange, showing him walking on water?!?
Like I said, maybe it’s his style of spirituality. I admit there are many weird things about this guy he, in the end, seems sincere, if not humble and I’d even like to believe his heart is in the right place. Then again, while there are many you rave about him I’ve also found many critics, Croatians, who, among other things, call him nothing but a phony.
Whatever the case, whether it be Fr. Sudac or Padre Pio, I don’t think I quite understand the stigmata. You?
AGAIN AND AGAIN 
There have been no popes that have discouraged people to going to Medjugorje.
As a Christian and an Orthodox I do not believe in any Roman Catholic apparitions or physical manifestations such as stigmata with a single exception: the original stigmata found on the body of Francesco of Assisi.
This saint canonized by the Roman Catholics but not by the Orthodox Church, and who definitely lived his life as a loyal subject of the pope, yet unselfconsciously followed Jesus across religious and denominational borders, was the only man whose stigmata had the characteristics of the actual nails protruding from the flesh, and whose wounds were stamped upon his flesh in a literal encounter with the risen Christ. The life of Francesco di Bernadone, apart from miracles authentic or professed, is enough evidence for me that he was for sure a man of God and a saint. I am not ashamed to venerate him or the wounds he bore, called stigmata. But all others I believe are bearers of deceptive signs, as have followed Roman Catholicism ever since it separated from the Church.
In my opinion, this Croatian entertainer is one of the latter.
God have mercy upon him.
I’m sorry to have to say the things I have said, but this is the Christian world in which I find myself.
Facing the world outside the Church, I am willing to risk anything.
Facing inward inside the Church, I would rather be safe than sorry.
The OCA official statement is anti-stigmata. I would be interested to hear an official Serbian statement. It seems though, that it is far removed from our mysticism.
As far as Sudac is concerned, he is seems to be much more hated than he is loved. He portrays an almost Vassula Ryden style of psuedo-charisma. Personally he freaks me out. Lots of Catholic Cardinals and Bishops over there, especially in BiH, have openly spoken against him. The last two Popes have openly discouraged people from making pilgrimages to Medjugorje, but Sudac’s websites quote him with calling Medjugorje “the confessional to the world”, with plenty of pilgrimage photos to back up this claim. Also, I remember reading in one Croatian Magazine (I think it was Globus), that he manifests the stigmata when he paints (he is an amateur painter). One of the paintings in the magazine was his rendition of the Theotokos, and the media he used to create the painting consisted of various bodily fluids, among other things-blood. Very, very weird.
A Romanian hieromonk once told a friend of mine that the Orthodox have stigmata, too, we just don’t make so big a deal out of it. I wouldn’t know.
I would agree that the primary problem with so many of the styles of piety seem to lack sobriety, quietude, wakefulness and the like – whatever other virtues they may have or engender. That makes me distrust them until they are well and proven by their fruits, consistently over a long period of time.