Question 17 – What Do You Think Of Medjugorje?

Transcript:

Medjugorje is still not officially recognized by the Church as an apparition site. It is recognized as a pilgrimage place of prayer. This is something we have to distinguish carefully; there are cases in the history of the Church where there were alleged apparitions but the Church abstained from making a judgment. Without saying or approving an apparition, the Church simply declares that it will allow people to pray. For example, there are two cases in Germany from the recent 20th century. This is the Wigratzbad, which is now the Seminary of the Fraternity of St. Peter, and another is in Marienfried, both in the Diocese of Augsburg in Bavaria, where there were two alleged apparitions of Our Lady after WWII.

They have written books and prayer books, and people came and prayed, believing that Our Lady appeared there and had some messages. The bishop of those times simply tolerated this for several decades without declaring its authenticity. He simply allowed them to pray. It was also beneficial because, during those times, there were a lot of crises. In both places, I visited them in my youth. In the 1980s, 40 years after the apparitions, another bishop from Ausburg investigated the matter and made an official committee of inquiry, carefully examining both appearances. They’ve concluded that both apparitions were not supernatural, or at least that it was not true that they were. However, they established both places as diocesan shrines of Our Lady, even with the invocation of the name, which was in the apparitions. For example, in Wigratzbad, Our Lady of Victory appeared, but the bishop said it never happened in these places and proclaimed that the apparitions have no supernatural origins. So this was their solution: to establish diocesan shrines.

Now, it appears that the same is true for Medjugorje, as the Holy See has not published an official report on the alleged supernatural nature of the apparitions. However, the Pope named an Apostolic Administrator, a bishop, to take care of the pilgrims. This is good because there is pastoral care for those who come, pray, and do penance. I think it could be a solution to allow a shrine. Independently of whether the Church will say if these apparitions in Medjugorje have a supernatural character or not or are simply an expression of the devotion of the so-called visionaries, the last judgment of the Holy See has not yet been made.