Medjugorje News & Articles

This year’s festival saw the participation of young people from sixty countries; 310 priests co-celebrated the first Mass and 440 of them co-celebrated the last one. How can we count the number of people present? Some estimates speak of twenty thousand communions distributed at each Mass, but there were certainly many, many more people than this present.

By Vedrana Vidović

The 22nd International Mariological and Marian Congress ended on September 8th in Lourdes, by a solemn Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of the Holy Rosary. Holy Mass was presided by the Cardinal Poupard, special representative of the Holy Father, who also presided the Congress.

Mons. Eduardo Horacio García, Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, was in Medjugorje with a group of pilgrims from Argentina in the beginning of October 2008. Mons. García is born in 1956, and he is a bishop for five years now. Marija Stegnar, an Argentinean Croat who is regularly bringing groups to Medjugorje for many years now, accompanied this pilgrimage.

Jožef Ratković, a Croat from Austria, walked from Zürich to Medjugorje to fulfill a vow: to pray for healing of his wife who suffers from multiple sclerosis. In 42 days he walked 1,400 km. “I believe in God and I hope for his help. I also pray for peace with God and with people. For me, peace is when we reach out to another and great another. This is basic.”

Before his near-death experience, Rev. Howard Storm, a Professor of Art at Northern Kentucky University, was not a very pleasant man. He was an avowed atheist and was hostile to every form of religion and those who practiced it. He often would use rage to control everyone around him and he didn't find joy in anything. Anything that wasn't seen, touched, or felt, he had no faith in. He knew with certainty that the material world was the full extent of everything that was. He considered all belief systems associated with religion to be fantasies for people to deceive themselves with. Beyond what science said, there was nothing else.

It was the 1st June 1985, and I was in France. I was leading a group of students on an art tour. My wife was with me, and it had come to the last day of our trip. In mid-sentence, I fell to the ground, screaming with intense pain in my stomach. An ambulance came and I was rushed to hospital. The doctor told me that I had a hole in my duodenum.

Published in Večernji list, 14. 09. 2008. Interview by Žarko Ivković

The media published in recent days a sensational news: that the Vatican began to square the accounts with the phenomenon called Medjugorje, and that the Pope himself called Medjugorje a fraud. In the background of this false information was the case of Fr. Tomislav Vlašić, punished by the Vatican for “spreading of doubtful doctrines, manipulation of consciences, doubtful mysticism, disobedience and fault against the sixth commandment (fornication)”. As this is a priest who used to serve in Medjugorje, the authenticity of Our Lady’s apparitions in Medjugorje was once again under suspicion.

What says about this Dr. Fr. Ivan Sesar, Provincial of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province and former Pastor of Medjugorje?

The CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH with its letter prot. 144/1985-27164 of 30 May 2008, has authorized me as the local Bishop of the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno to inform the diocesan community of the canonical status of Fr. Tomislav Vlašić, the founder of the association “Kraljice mira potpuno Tvoji - po Mariji k Isusu” - (Queen of Peace, totally Yours - Through Mary to Jesus).

Ivan Dragicevic from Medjugorje spoke on Tuesday, September, 16th 2008, before thousands of the faithful at the Peace prayer in the Viennese St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Austria.

The cathedral was overfull with the faithful from diverse prayer groups and movements. They met under the slogan „A Message for You”. The Malteser provided for a smooth operational sequence of this large meeting. The Malteser Youth, called Johannesgemeinschaft, was also very active in invitation and preparation. Under the guidance of Mag. Oktavian Eiselsberg, everything was organized in the best way.