Last week the Vatican welcomed what it calls “abundant spiritual fruits” in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje, but has stopped short of validating the claimed Marian apparitions that have reportedly taken place there in recent years. Heather Tomlinson explains the full story
An obscure village in a remote region of Bosnia has made international headlines after the Vatican officially approved it as a site of pilgrimage. If you don’t have much contact with the Catholic Church, you might never have heard of Medjugorje, and have even less chance of pronouncing it (roughly Medj-oo-gor-ee-ay). Here’s what you need to know.
Why has a small Bosnian village become a topic of discussion?
Thousands of people visit Medjugorje every year, braving long coach journeys and scorching summer temperatures amidst the rocky, hilly terrain. The story begins in 1981. Six local young people were in the fields of this working class, rural area. Suddenly, they say, they saw a vision of a beautiful woman. Initially they were frightened, but the experiences became regular and they believed that they were being visited by the Virgin Mary and that she was giving them messages to pass on to the world. Reports of such visions have continued up until the present day.
What did they believe Mary was saying?
There have been hundreds of alleged messages over the years, sometimes aimed at the villagers themselves, but usually aimed at everyone. Priests associated with Medjugorje summarise them as encouraging regular spiritual practices: prayer, fasting, confession, Mass, and reading the Bible. There is also a common theme of encouraging love towards others and praying with the heart for peace and conversions.
What evidence is there that this is real?
There are stories of people who have visited Medjugorje and had a profound spiritual experience – including conversion from atheism. There are some accounts of physical healings, ranging from cancer to addictions. More commonly, ordinary Christians visit and find that they experience peace or a deepening of their faith.
Over the years, news of claimed spiritual experiences at Medjugorje has spread. Once a small farming village, Medjugorje now has many hotels for the thousands who arrive each year, and St James’s church has an enormous outside area for people to attend Mass each evening, with rows of confessional booths.
This week, the Vatican officially declared that there are good “spiritual fruits” at the site: “The uniqueness of the place lies in the large number of such fruits: abundant conversions, a frequent return to the sacraments (particularly, the Eucharist and Reconciliation [confession]), many vocations to priestly, religious, and married life, a deepening of the life of faith, a more intense practice of prayer, many reconciliations between spouses, and the renewal of marriage and family life.”
Hasn’t there been a lot of ethnic conflict in Bosnia?
Not only was the region caught in a brutal conflict in the 1990s, but when the visions first started in the early 80s, the village was in communist Yugoslavia. News of the apparitions quickly spread, prompting a severe crackdown by the atheistic government authorities, and persecution against the visionaries themselves. For example, one of the young people, Mirjana Soldo, was prevented from completing her education, forced to leave the region, and aggressively interrogated by police many times, according to her memoir, My heart will triumph (CatholicShop Publishing). During the war, the visions continued, with a consistent message to have faith and pray for peace.
Why would the Virgin Mary visit people on earth?
Beliefs about Mary and her role in the present are a significant point of difference between many Catholics (who are likely to be more accepting) and Protestants.
Visions of Mary have been reported throughout history, most famously at Lourdes in France to the young Bernadette, but also at Fatima in Portugal and Kibeho in Rwanda. The timing often appears to precede important events in history.
Shouldn’t we be sceptical about this?
Protestants generally don’t believe in Marian apparitions. But Catholics can be wary too. The Catholic Church has a process of determining whether any alleged supernatural event is genuine or not – including healings, exorcisms and visions or prophecies. It usually takes a long time for the outcome to be decided. In the case of Medjugorje, various local clergy have differed in their opinions, but the official church decision has not been made until now, although it is still incomplete.
Did the Vatican say the messages are genuine?
The Church officially said that Medjugorje is a legitimate place of pilgrimage and acknowledged that there were genuine positive effects from visiting. It stopped short, however, of agreeing that the visions and messages are supernatural in origin, described them as “alleged messages”, and said people can make their own mind up.
There is some scepticism in the words of the ruling: “Although we find many positive elements that help to heed the call of the Gospel when we consider the overall set of messages tied to this spiritual experience, some people believe that certain messages contain contradictions or are connected with the desires or interests of the alleged visionaries or others. It cannot be ruled out that this may have happened in the case of a few messages.”
The statement said that the messages “at times appear connected to confused human experiences, theologically inaccurate expressions, or interests that are not entirely legitimate” so that it is possible that they were not real but “some error of a natural order […] not due to bad intentions, but to the subjective perception of the phenomenon.”
Which messages are controversial?
Though most messages are in line with Catholic theology and encourage its practice, one that is particularly debated talked of an equality between religions, in a similar way to Pope Francis’s comments this month. However Father Leon Pereira, a former evangelical who is now a Dominican friar and chaplain to English people at the site, argues that this message is better understood in the context of Bosnia, where there is considerable ethnic tension and religion is understood to be the same as ethnicity, and so the message encouraged seeing all people as equal.
A more representative alleged message is that of 25 June 1988: “Dear children! I am calling you to that love which is loyal and pleasing to God. Little children, love bears everything bitter and difficult for the sake of Jesus who is love. Therefore, dear children, pray that God come to your aid, not however according to your desire, but according to His love. Surrender yourself to God so that He may heal you, console you and forgive everything inside you which is a hindrance on the way of love. In this way God can move your life, and you will grow in love. Dear children, glorify God with a hymn of love so that God’s love may be able to grow in you day by day to its fullness. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
