Catholic Church response to the Medjugorje apparitions
Various officials of the Catholic Church have been discerning the validity of alleged apparitions of Mary, the mother of Jesus in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian village of Medjugorje, known as Our Lady of Medjugorje, since they began on 24 June 1981. The Church has sought to provide guidance regarding the Marian apparitions to potential devotees and pilgrims.
Official pilgrimages were officially authorized by the Holy See in May 2019. In August 2024, Pope Francis granted approval for devotions linked to Medjugorje. The Holy See has stated that these approvals do not signify recognition of the apparitions.
Background
When Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of Austria-Hungary, Pope Leo XIII took steps to establish dioceses and appoint local bishops. This included transferring parishes administered until then by the Franciscans to diocesan clergy. The friars resisted, and in the 1940s Franciscan provinces still controlled 63 of 79 parishes in the dioceses of Vrhbosna and Mostar. In the 1970s, friars in Herzegovina formed an association of priests to encourage popular opposition to diocesan parish takeovers. A 1975 decree by Pope Paul VI, Romanis Pontificibus, ordered that Franciscans to withdraw from most of the parishes in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, retaining 30 and leaving 52 to the diocesan clergy. In the 1980s the Franciscans still held 40 parishes under the direction of 80 friars.On 24 June 1981, six children in the town of Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, said they had seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary and that these apparitions were continuing. The village began to attract pilgrims.
Local ordinary at the time of the events
On 11 January 1982, Pavao Žanić, Bishop of Mostar, within whose jurisdiction Medjugorje lay, established a commission to look into the matter. When three days later, on 14 January 1982, three of the seers told him that the "Madonna" supported the Franciscans, Bishop Žanić began to be concerned that they were being guided more by their Franciscan advisors than by the Blessed Virgin.In 1984, Bishop Žanić decided to extend a first Commission to study the apparitions and expanded its membership to fifteen: 12 priests and 3 medical experts. They held seven meetings in all. This second commission completed its work in May 1986. Eleven members determined that the events at Medjugorje were Non constat de supernaturalitate. Žanić informed the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia and the Holy See.
Ruling of the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia
With the possible breakup of Yugoslavia, many Croat church leaders saw the new Marian cult in Herzegovina as both an aid to anti-communist efforts and a potential focus for Croat nationalism in both Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.As the Medjugorje events had exceeded the scope of a local event, in January 1987, upon the suggestion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Franjo Kuharić and Bishop Žanić made a joint communiqué, in which they announced the formation of a third Commission under the direction of the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia. The bishops would both review the work of the previous commissions and conduct its own inquiry. The Conference instructed that pilgrimages should not be organized to Medjugorje on the supposition of its being supernatural.
The Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia, at their spring meeting in Zadar on April 10, 1991, issued declaration stating in an ecclesiastical ruling that "n the basis of studies it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring".
Ratko Perić
In 1993 Bishop Žanić retired at the age of 75, and was succeeded as bishop of Mostar-Duvno by his coadjutor, Bishop Ratko Perić.On 2 October 1997, Perić wrote in a letter that he believed the events alleged at Medjugorje were no longer non constat de supernaturalitate but constat de non supernaturalitate.
In May 1998, in response to an inquiry from Gilbert Aubry, Bishop of Saint-Denis de La Réunion, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Archbishop Bertone cited the previous 1991 finding of non constat de supernaturalitate by the Yugoslav Bishops Conference, and noted that since the division of Yugoslavia the jurisdiction now laid with the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bertone also stated that Bishop Perić's statement "should be considered the expression of the personal conviction of the Bishop of Mostar which he has the right to express as Ordinary of the place, but which is and remains his personal opinion".
Position and investigations of the Holy See (1996–2017)
In response to an inquiry from a French bishop, in March 1996 then Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, if presumed as a place of authentic Marian apparitions, were not permitted to be organized neither on the parish nor on the diocesan level. The following June, in response to reporters' questions, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman for Holy See Press Office, said that Archbishop Bertone was referring specifically to official pilgrimages. He also said that Catholic parishes and dioceses were not allowed to organize pilgrimages to Medjugorje, as that might have given the impression of a canonical endorsement.Ruini commission
A commission on Medjugorje was established in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI and chaired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, on the alleged Medjugorje apparitions.On 21 October 2013, the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States communicated, on behalf of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that Catholics, whether clergy or laypeople, "are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such 'apparitions' would be taken for granted". It added that, and that the Holy See considered the 1991 judgment of the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia to be still in force. The letter was sent to every diocese in the U.S. as Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wanted the U.S. bishops to be aware that Ivan Dragicevic, one of the "so-called visionaries" of Medjugorje, was scheduled to give presentations at parishes across the country and was anticipated to have more apparitions during these talks.
On 18 January 2014, the commission set up in 2010 to study the Medjugorje question was reported to have completed its work, the results of which it would communicate to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
On 6 June 2015, Pope Francis, referring to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told reporters: "we've reached the point of making a decision and then they will say".
At an unknown date, the commission voted 13–1 to confirm the supernatural origin of the first seven occurrences of the apparition. In addition, Commission members also voted to recommend lifting the Holy See ban on official diocesan and parish pilgrimages to Medjugorje and for turning the town's parish St. James Church into a pontifical shrine under Holy See oversight. The move, the commission said, would not signify recognition of the apparitions, but would acknowledge the faith and pastoral needs of the pilgrims while ensuring a proper accounting of donations.
Pope Francis also mentioned that the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which reviewed the Ruini report and other material to which it was privy, expressed doubts about both the phenomenon and the Ruini report.
Hoser's investigation
On 11 February 2017, Pope Francis named Bishop Henryk Hoser of Warszawa-Praga in Poland as his special envoy to Medjugorje, not to investigate the veracity of the apparitions but to evaluate the pastoral situation in Medjugorje and assess how the needs of pilgrims should best be met. Archbishop Hoser said: "If Marian devotion has flourished in Medjugorje, if such multitudes arrive there, it is therefore a place where veneration will continue, since Our Lady can be venerated everywhere".The Pope's decision on the situation was to be made by the Pope after Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser has completed his additional examination of the pastoral situation in Medjugorje.
On 7 December 2017, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, Pope Francis' envoy to Medjugorje, having completed his assessment, said in an interview that official pilgrimages at Medjugorje are allowed, stating: "dioceses and other institutions can organize official pilgrimages". He also said: "The decree of the former episcopal conference of what used to be Yugoslavia, which, before the Balkan war, advised against pilgrimages in Medjugorje organized by bishops, is no longer relevant".
Official authorization of the Church
Official authorization of pilgrimage
On 7 December 2017, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, Pope Francis' envoy to Medjugorje, having completed his assessment, said in an interview that official pilgrimages at Medjugorje are allowed, stating: "dioceses and other institutions can organize official pilgrimages". He also said: "The decree of the former episcopal conference of what used to be Yugoslavia, which, before the Balkan war, advised against pilgrimages in Medjugorje organized by bishops, is no longer relevant".Prior to Hoser's review, pilgrimages to Medjugorje organized by official Church groups were discouraged, although people could make them privately or through pilgrimage tour groups. Hoser announced that the previous impediment put in place by the Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia had been lifted.
On May 12, 2019, it was announced that Pope Francis authorized official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. According to Vatican News, these pilgrimages can "be officially organized by dioceses and parishes", but that this should not be interpreted as a recognition of the authenticity of the alleged Marian apparition of Medjugorje. In a press conference, Alessandro Gisotti, then ad interim director of the Holy See Press Office, said: "Considering the considerable flow of people who go to Medjugorje and the abundant fruits of grace that have sprung from it".
The first sanctioned pilgrimage then took place for five days from August 2–6, 2019. During the pilgrimage, approximately 60,000 young Catholics from 97 countries took part in the celebration of the Medjugorje International Youth Festival. Fourteen archbishops and bishops and about 700 Catholic priests attended as well.