ROME—In a highly anticipated report on the alleged decadeslong apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Thursday endorsed prudent devotion to Mary at the popular pilgrimage site in Bosnia and Herzegovina yet withheld any declaration on whether the alleged visions are supernatural in origin.
The September 19 note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith , signed by prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and approved by Pope Francis in an August 28 audience, grants a “nihil obstat” to the spiritual experience at Medjugorje.
While it offers no definitive judgment on the supernatural authenticity of the alleged apparitions, the Vatican’s report highlights the abundant good fruits that have come from Medjugorje. Fernández presented the report in a two-hour news conference at the Holy See Press Office on September 19. The predominant themes of those communications—which the Vatican stresses should be referred to as “alleged messages”—are calls for conversion, peace, reconciliation, and a return to the sacraments, along with a “constant call to abandon a worldly lifestyle and excessive attachment to worldly goods.”
During the news conference, Fernández quoted from several of the alleged messages he found to be edifying. “This risks creating a dependence and an excessive expectation on the part of the faithful, which could ultimately obscure the central importance of the revealed word,” it says. The dicastery also said “those messages that attribute to Our Lady the expressions ’my plan’ or ‘my project’ also show a certain problematic aspect,” and these expressions “might create some confusion” because “in reality, everything Mary accomplishes is always at the service of the Lord’s plan and his divine plan of salvation.”
The dicastery advised people who may visit Medjugorje that pilgrimages should not be made to meet with alleged visionaries but to have an encounter with Mary, Queen of Peace and with her son, Jesus Christ, through participation in the sacraments.
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