Vatican gives cautious approval for Medjuogorje devotions

September 19, 2024

The Vatican has given formal approval for pilgrimages to Medjugorje, the site in Bosnia-Herzegovina that has drawn thousands of faithful since reports of Marian apparitions there beginning in 1981.

With the approval of Pope Francis— who once expressed skepticism about the Medjugorje phenomena— the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued a Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje, acknowledging the “abundant and widespread fruits” of devotion to the Virgin Mary that have sprung from Medjugorje. However the DDF statement stops short of a final judgment that the phenomena are of supernatural origin.

The document, released September 19, also cautions that Vatican approval of devotion to Our Lady of Medjugorje does not imply endorsement of statements by the alleged visionaries, “who are no longer seen as the central mediators of ‘the Medjugorje phenomenon.’” Rather, the Vatican proclaims that at Medjuogorje “the Holy Spirit is carry out many beautiful and positive things.” The statement elaborates:

The positive fruits are most evident in the promotion of a healthy practice of a life of faith, in accordance with the tradition of the Church. In the context of Medjugorje, this applies both to those who had been previously distant from the faith as well as to those who had practiced the faith only superficially. The uniqueness of the place lies in the large number of such fruits: abundant conversions, a frequent return to the sacraments (particularly, the Eucharist and Reconciliation), many vocations to priestly, religious, and married life, a deepening of the life of faith, a more intense practice of prayer, many reconciliations between spouses, and the renewal of marriage and family life. It should be noted that such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meetings with the “visionaries” to be present for the alleged apparitions.

A long-awaited decision

The Vatican judgment on Medjugorje has been heavily anticipated, especially since the DDF released new policies for the evaluation of reported supernatural phenomena earlier this year. The September 19 statement was issued as one of a series of judgments issued by the DDF in recent weeks under the terms of those policies.

Medjugorje has drawn many thousands of pilgrims since the original reports of appearances to a group of young people there in 1981. The children who originally proclaimed the Virgin’s messages— now grown to adulthood— report that they continue to receive regular messages. The visionaries’ claims have met with some skepticism over the years, and controversy surrounding those claims have elicited different judgments from Church leaders, both in the Medjugorje region and in Rome.

In 1991 the Catholic bishops of what was then Yugoslavia said that “it cannot be affirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring.” But as many people reported spiritual benefits, pilgrimages to Medjugorje continued. In 1996 the DDF (then known under its previous name as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) ruled that official pilgrimages sponsored by dioceses should not take place. Still “unofficial” pilgrimages continued, as did the flood of positive reports.

In March 2010, Pope Benedict formed a special commission to investigate the Medjugorje phenomenon. That commission did not deliver its report until 2014, and its report has never been made public. However it reportedly concluded that the original appearances of the Virgin Mary were authentic, while making no final determination on later reports.

In 2017, Pope Francis voiced his own personal suspicions about the Medjugorje reports during one of his airplane exchanges with reporters. He scoffed at the idea that the Virgin Mary would act like “a woman who’s the head of an office, who sends a message at a certain time every day.” Yet in 2019 the Pope reversed the earlier Vatican policy, approving pilgrimages to Medjugorje.

Caution about visionaries and messages

”The time has come to conclude a long and complex history that has surrounded the spiritual phenomena of Medjugorje,” begins the DDF note issued on September 19. The document is signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Msgr. Armando Matteo, respectively the prefect and the secretary of the DDF. The document announces that both the Vatican and the local bishop (Bishop Petar Palic of Mostar-Duvno) will issue formal statements approving of the Medjugorje devotions.

Still the statement does not answer all questions about the reported messages of the Virgin, and the Vatican Note includes a clear caution about the continuing stream of reports from the alleged visionaries. While recognizing the “abundant conversions,” healings, reconciliations, and other spiritual benefits associated with Medjugorje, the document notes that “such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meetings with the ‘visionaries’ to be present for the alleged apparitions."

At the beginning of the document the DDF emphasizes that a judgement on the positive benefits of pilgrimages does not entail an endorsement of the visionaries’ public statements: “It is important to clarify from the outset that the conclusions of this Note do not imply a judgment about the moral life of the alleged visionaries.” And that message is underlined later in the Note, when the DDF insists the pilgrims should be “strongly advised that pilgrimages are not made to meet with alleged visionaries but to have an encounter with Mary, the Queen of Peace.”

Indeed the DDF does not make a final judgment on the authenticity of the apparitions themselves. The Vatican document instead focuses on the beneficial results of pilgrimages and the spiritual gifts that have been observed among those who have developed a devotion to Our Lady of Medjugorje. Those benefits have included both spiritual and emotional healings, reconciliations within families, and above all an increased devotion to the sacramental life of the Church, the DDF reports. The Note explains the decision not to issue a final judgment:

Evaluating the abundant and widespread fruits, which are so beautiful and positive, does not imply that the alleged supernatural events are declared authentic. Instead, it only highlights that the Holy Spirit is acting fruitfully for the good of the faithful “in the midst” of this spiritual phenomenon of Medjugorje.

Thus while approving pilgrimages to Medjugorje the DDF says that the faithful are not obliged to believe in the phenomena reported there, and individual bishops are free to make their own determinations about the value of pilgrimages.

The central message

The central theme of Medjugorje, the DDF finds, is devotion to the Virgin under the title of Queen of Peace. The reported messages from the Virgin, the Note observes, focus on the need to pursue peace through prayer, conversion, and penance.

These central themes are fully in line with the teachings of the Church, the DDF determines. Again, however, the document notes that there are some reported messages that contain questionable elements, which might be attributed to the visionaries’ own inadequate understanding of the Virgin’s meaning. The Note questions whether the threatening tone in some messages, and the “relentless insistence on listening to the message,” should be attributed to the Virgin Mary. The DDF also cautions that the use of the term “mediatrix,” applied to the Virgin, “could to the Son of God made man.”

However the DDF statement leaves no doubt that the Vatican endorses the overall content of the messages, noting that the Medjugorje experience has undoubtedly drawn thousands of people closer to God, the sacraments, and the life of the Catholic Church.

For all current news, visit our News home page.

• Pope Francis grants ‘Nulla Osta’ for Medjugorje (Vatican News)
• Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje (Vatican press office)
• What has the Catholic Church said about Medjugorje? A timeline (CNA)

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