Father Armorth on Medjugorje

Father Amorth is a famous exorcist but few are aware that he is also one the most outspoken supporters of the special events taking place in Medjugorje. Medjugorje is a town in Bosnia where for over 28 years the Blessed Mother is said to be appearing to six “Visionaries“. Father Amorth speaking about the apparitions said “Surely. Medjugorje is a fortress against Satan. Satan hates Medjugorje because it is a place of conversion, of prayer, of transformation of life.”

“I always understood Medjugorje as a continuation of Fatima. According to Our Lady’s words in Fatima, if we had prayed and fasted, there would not have been World War II. We have not listened to her and therefore there was a war. Also here in Medjugorje, Our Lady often calls to prayer for peace. In her apparitions, Our Lady always presents herself under another name to show the goal of her apparitions. At Lourdes, she presented herself as the Immaculate Conception, in Fatima as the Queen of the Holy Rosary. Here in Medjugorje, Our Lady presented herself as the Queen of Peace. We all remember the words “Mir, mir, mir” (peace, peace, peace) that were written in the sky at the very beginning of the apparitions. We see clearly that humanity is running the risk of war, and Our Lady insists on prayer and on Christian life to attain peace. Medjugorje is really a place where one learns to pray, but also to sacrifice oneself, where people are converted and change their lives. The influence of Medjugorje is worldwide. It is enough to think about how many prayer groups came about thanks to the inspiration of Medjugorje.”

Question: Most Rev. Don Amorth, I would like to ask you a question which I think is of great interest to all our readers. We are witnessing great misfortunes, which are taking place at a rapid pace in recent times. Earthquakes in Turkey and Greece; typhoons and floods in Mexico and India, with tens of millions of homeless people; the massacres in Chechnya and Central Africa; the factory of death in pills; the escape of atomic radiation; air and rail chain disasters …; they are all facts that make you think. Will not the very sad predictions of the end, many times announced, mean?

Answer: It is not easy to answer; it is much easier to observe with the eye of faith. We witness many facts that it is not easy to connect, but which we are led to think about.

A first fact is the great corruption in which today’s society lives: I put in the first place the immense massacre of abortion, superior to any war or natural disaster.

 I look at public sexual and professional immorality, which destroyed families and erased the most sacred values.

 I observe the fearful decline of faith which greatly lowered the number of priests, often also in terms of quality and apostolic impact.

And I see the use of occultism: magicians, fortune tellers, satanic sects, spiritualism … On the other hand, I am more cautious in considering the much vaunted “punishments” of the turn of the century. The third secret of Fatima has not been published, and all current versions are false.

The prophecy remains valid “Finally my Immaculate Heart will triumph, Russia will convert and a time of peace will be given to the world”. It is therefore a prophecy of hope.

Many other private prophecies, which result in an “intermediate coming of Christ” leave me indifferent. Looking at the facts enunciated by the writer, I would say that it is not God who punishes humanity, but it is humanity that is raging on itself.

Of course, if painful facts are expected for the end of our millennium, we are experiencing them in full: the escape of atomic radiation, the deadly tablets, the genetic manipulations, show how much man can destroy man, if he loses the reference to God in his activities.

But we cannot forget the signs of hope, the gestures of generosity and the same trust with which we face the Holy Year. And if we want to underline a clear, sure, indisputable sign of recovery, let’s think of the “heroic march” (as Don Dolindo Ruotolo prophesied it) of the Pope’s travels which, although old and sick, has lost none of its charisma to galvanize the peoples he continues to visit, opening perspectives for the faith that seemed unthinkable. They are dawn glimmers that herald a sunny day.