If this is a hoax, it's a darn good one.
The local Franciscans have everything to do with that. You would need to study the "Franciscan case" in this whole matter to understand what is really going on. Basically they have been disobedient to Rome concerning a settlement reached in the mid 70's whereby they refuse to give up parishes to the secular clergy under the Bishop.
The then children came around with a practical joke which the Franciscans ran with...
There is a good reason for it. Medjugorje hoax was not created for financial gain only but for political reasons as well. Hercegovina region where it is situated was the place of the most horrendous crimes during the WWII.
Since April 10 1941 (creation of Nazi state of Croatia) Franciscans have instigated and personally took part in mass murder of Serb villagers of Orthoox faith in Herzegovina.
In one instance, in Shurmanci village, hundreds of villagers were thrown alive in pits and caves. Shurmanci crime scene is a stone thow from the site where sighting allegedly took place . Go figure.
Such savagery involving the RC priests has not been seen since conquest of South America.
Father Zovko, one of the chief creators of Medjugoje myth is a relative of another father Zovko, WWII war criminal.
All this was well known in Vatican and Vatican NEVER ackowledged Medjugorje.
Medjugorje is not only the worst case of criminal enterprise and racket, it is also a perfect case of Nazi revisionism guised as the expression of religious freedom.
MIllions of those who visited it, were used to whitewash Franciscan and Nazi crimes.