The Vatican’s Powerful Truth: “Medjugorje apparitions ‘were real’. Vatican Commission votes overwhelmingly to recognize as supernatural and to “lift ban on official diocesan and parish pilgrimages to Medjugorje.”
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“According to Vatican Insider, 13 of the 14 commission members present at one meeting voted to recommend lifting the Vatican ban on official diocesan and parish pilgrimages to Medjugorje.”
Mystic Post Note: The Vatican Commission’s recommendation to lift the ban on official diocesan pilgrimages to Medjugorje has not been widely reported in US Catholic press. Much of the press focused on the Pope’s so-called “doubts” about the “later” apparitions. The truth is if the Church had even modest concerns about the “later” apparitions including, the events that are still ongoing, the Church would be very cautious of encouraging parishes to officially organize trips to Medjugorje. The recommendation of lifting the ban on official trips is very telling of what the Vatican really thinks of the spiritual value of Medjugorje. As Vatican envoy said recently:
“You can say to the whole world that there is a light with Medjugorje and We need these spots of light in the world that is going down to darkness. So friends be carriers of this joyful news.”
From Catholic Herald
The First Medjugorje apparitions ‘were real’: Vatican commission
Medjugorje is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the Catholic world (CNS)
The commission established by Pope Benedict XVI to study the alleged apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, reportedly voted overwhelmingly to recognise as supernatural the first seven appearances of Mary in 1981.
The commission said it was clear that the six alleged visionaries and a seventh who claims to have begun receiving messages from Mary in December 1982 were not given adequate spiritual support.
Vatican Insider published its piece on the report on May 16, three days after Pope Francis spoke about some details of the report to journalists travelling with him from Fatima, Portugal.
The Vatican press office on May 17 declined to comment on the Vatican Insider piece.
Speaking to journalists on May 13, Pope Francis said that, regarding the Medjugorje commission’s work, “three things need to be distinguished.”
“About the first apparitions, when (the ‘seers’) were young, the report more or less says that the investigation needs to continue,” the Pope said, according to the English translation posted on the Vatican website.
The “real core” of the commission’s report, he said, is “the spiritual fact, the pastoral fact” that thousands of pilgrims go to Medjugorje and are converted. “For this there is no magic wand; this spiritual-pastoral fact cannot be denied.”
The spiritual fruits of the pilgrimages, he said, are the reason why in February he appointed Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga to study the best ways to provide pastoral care to townspeople and the pilgrims.
According to Vatican Insider, 13 of the 14 commission members present at one meeting voted to recommend lifting the Vatican ban on official diocesan and parish pilgrimages to Medjugorje.
The commission also recommended turning the town’s parish church of St James into a pontifical shrine with Vatican 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 the financial donations pilgrims leave.
The commission’s role was to make recommendations to the Pope; its report is not an official church judgment on the apparitions. Pope Francis told reporters on May 13 that “in the end, something will be said,” but he gave no timeline.
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