Finally, a book about the Marian Apparitions written from a totally objective point of view. This 'non-believer'--a Rolling Stones writer--has done such extensive research into an area that is largely dictated by faith and faith alone, that his observations must be scarey to everyone. People of faith will be satisfied, and rewarded for their faith. Skeptics, agnostics, cynics and scientific methodolist will be in for a surprise. This is a must read to travel with the author as he journies through his own realization, and reconciles his past.
Very worth while reading. It may save your soul!

Reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary run from the sublime (At Fatima to three Portuguese children in a pasture) to the silly (In Florida to a jewelry designer on a grilled cheese sandwich). It was news reports of a Boardman, OR Marian apparition in the winter of 1994 skewing toward the silly which first piqued Portland author Randall Sullivan's interest and sent him on a ten year journey that resulted in The Miracle Detective: An Investigative Reporter Sets Out to Examine How the Catholic Church Investigates Holy Visions and Discovers His Own Faith.

Sullivan is an investigative journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine specializing in non-rock and roll feature stories often focusing on crime or offbeat themes with a mysterious slant. In 1994, Sullivan was neither a Catholic nor a believer in the divine but he did have the open mind of a journalist. As Sullivan sets the stage early in the book, it was the sincerity of the purported witnesses to a glowing image of the Virgin Mary in an Eastern Oregon trailer park and the fact that the incident was "under investigation" by the Diocese of Baker that induced him to look into how reported miracles were investigated by the Catholic Church.

Dubbing these Church investigators "Miracle Detectives" Sullivan writes that with virtually no firsthand knowledge of the Catholic Church he naively intended to produce an account detailing the official Church process for authenticating miracles focusing on the current apparitions of the Medjugorje seers. Armed with Vatican and Medjugorje introductions supplied by Father Milan Mikulich from St. Birgitta's Parish in Portland and Father Steve Sunborg of the Oregon Curia, Sullivan began his research in Rome and Bosnia.

On a superficial level, Sullivan accomplished what he set out to do. The Miracle Detective does feature interesting and insightful explanations and commentary on the Church's rigorous process for looking into reported miraculous incidents. Sullivan interviewed many clerics including an Eastern Oregon parish priest, a Postulator from the Sacred Congregation of the Causes for Saints at the Vatican and others including Father Benedict Groeschel C.F.R..

Additionally, Sullivan makes a welcome contribution to the body of Medjugorje-themed literature by providing a sober and thorough review of the numerous medical and psychological studies conducted on the six seers from 1981 to the present and objectively reviews the divisive reactions to the reported apparitions among world Catholics and Yugoslav government officials alike. Also, almost unique in writing on the subject, Sullivan masterfully frames the spiritual story of Medjugorje within the broader context of Balkan history from the pagan times of late antiquity through the medieval clash between Christianity and Islam, Communism and perhaps most importantly the Bosnian war of the 1990's.

Although the Church's study of events in Medjugorje was intended to be the focus of the book, it ultimately serves, as one element in a shotgun blast of a story that at times reads like a gripping detective thriller at others like a history text but ultimately becomes a moving faith journey, as the authors own experiences take center stage.
Many people have traveled to Medjugorje and claim to return changed. Unexpectedly and despite his impeccable popular culture credentials, Randall Sullivan spends much of the book detailing the peaks and valleys of his own conversion story. Beginning with an incident in the Purple Room at Powell's bookstore in Portland to his arrival in the Bosnian village, a brush with evil in a Roman piazza and finally circling back to an update on events in Boardman, Sullivan's unlikely story of coming to terms with God is at times fascinating, frustrating and uplifting.

In some ways, Sullivan's tale is reminiscent of The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton. Although he is now remembered as a great spiritual sage, the young Merton outlined in his first book was also a thoroughly secular young man busy listening to jazz records and getting kicked out of college. It was only slowly and through the gift of grace that he refashioned his focus and became the man we remember. If the conversion story detailed in The Seven Story Mountain is told more gracefully than The Miracle Detective it is perhaps because Merton wrote from the benefit of hindsight while Sullivan admits to remaining in the thick of his.

The Miracle Detective is difficult to categorize, it is at once a survey of modern era Marian apparitions and a detailed summary of the major events and personalities that make up the Medjugorje story to date. Mostly it is the personal story of a man deeply immersed in American popular culture whose life takes a much-unexpected turn in response to grace.

Because this book runs in so many different directions and the author freely admits his personal involvement in the subject matter compelled him to throw out the notion of journalistic objectivity, some readers may find the scattershot organization of the book lacking cohesion. I suggest it is a strength; The Miracle Detective is the sprawling output of a well-educated thoroughly organized secular mind reeling from a profound experience of the divine.