(RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has defrocked one of the promoters of a world-famous Bosnian shrine to the Virgin Mary, following his investigation on charges of heresy and sexual misdeeds.

The Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, an adviser to supposed visionaries at the shrine of Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been “granted … the favor of reduction to the lay state … and of dismissal from the (Franciscan) Order,” according to a letter signed by the order’s head, the Rev. Jose Rodriguez Carballo.

The letter, addressed to Franciscan authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Italy, was dated March 10 and posted last month on the blog of Italian writer and journalist Marco Corvaglia. It refers to Vlasic’s “conduct harmful to ecclesial communion both in the spheres of doctrine and discipline.”

In May 2008, the Vatican and the Franciscans jointly ordered that Vlasic be confined to an Italian monastery and forbidden to make public appearances or hear confessions during an investigation on charges of “heresy and schism, as well as scandalous acts” against the Sixth Commandment, which forbids adultery and other “sins gravely contrary to chastity.”

Medjugorje has supposedly been the site of more than 40,000 apparitions of the Virgin Mary since 1981, drawing millions of pilgrims to the Bosnian town. However, the Catholic Church has never endorsed the apparitions, and in 1985, the Vatican banned church-sponsored pilgrimages there.

Vlasic was one of the spiritual advisers to the six persons who claim to have received the visions as children. He left Medjugorje in 1988, following a sex scandal involving a nun, and moved to Italy, where he founded a group that promotes belief in the apparitions.

Rodriguez’s letter noted that the Vatican was also prohibiting Vlasic from engaging in any type of religious ministry or “releasing declarations on religious matters, especially regarding the `phenomenon of Medjugorje.'”