THE MEDJUGORJE WITNESS

In a recent interview with the Italian Catholic news agency SIR (Servizio Informazione Religiosa), the Pope’s special envoy for Medjugorje, Msgr Henryk Hoser, said there is conflicting opinions regarding the alleged visions and it is necessary to experience the reality of Medjugorje which is a place of reflection and prayer, encounter and dialogue with the Lord.

 

When asked whether the messages of Medjugorje during the pandemic have changed, Msgr. Hoser replied: “The message of Medjugorje is always relevant because it is a call to conversion, to peace, to return to God, addressed to people who no longer pray and who no longer have direct contact with our Creator and Redeemer. That call to penance, conversion and sacramental life is, I would say, increasingly important. And the priests who celebrate in that place, in their pastoral work, place emphasis on precisely these aspects. In Medjugorje, many truly turn in the depths of their hearts, there are many examples of reawakening vocations, changing lives. The pandemic, therefore, has not changed anything, except the number of people present, because many people have been prevented from fulfilling their wish to come there in person.”

 

Asked what attracts people to Medjugorje, Msgr. Hoser responded: “We do not offer pilgrims supernatural things here. We pray the rosary together, celebrate the Eucharist, and then people are given daily bread, which the Church has been doing for millennia. After the Eucharist, a prayer for healing is often recited. Nothing special. Many pilgrims in Medjugorje rediscover the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar at the end, which people usually applaud. And that applause somehow became a recognisable sign of Medjugorje. Often in the West, due to increasing secularisation, churches resemble a spiritual desert. It is different in Medjugorje, and that is why I invite everyone to come here.”