Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
After a year of mission at the shrine of Medjugorje (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Archbishop Henryk Hoser, Archbishop Emeritus of Warsaw-Prague (Poland), and "special apostolic visitor" to the parish of Medjugorje sent by Pope Francis in May 2018 for an indefinite period of time, reports:
"Medjugorje is an important place of worship where we can see extraordinary spiritual fruits. I refer for example to conversions, priestly and religious vocations and incessant confessions. I do not think there is any trace of heresy.”
In a July 23, 2019 interview for the Italian Episcopal Conference’s daily press agency Avvenire, Bishop Hoser said: “It was an intense year, under the sign of Our Lady…"
Medjugorje is a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where, since June 1981, six young people (now adults) claim to have seen and to continue to see the Virgin Mary and receive messages from her. Every year, more than two million people visit the shrine. In May 2019, Pope Francis authorized pilgrimages to Medjugorje, stressing however that this permission should not be "interpreted as an official authentication of the apparitions, which still need examination by the Church."
"People say that they feel the presence of Our Lady there," says Bishop Hoser. "It is a blessed place of encounter and dialogue with the Lord through the Virgin, marked by silence, the Rosary, meditation, catechesis, and the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and reconciliation."
The apostolic visitor continues: "Today, my mission in Medjugorje is to accompany the pilgrims who come from all the continents and to be at their side. Pilgrims come from 80 different countries. A few weeks ago, for example, there was an international retreat of priests with more than four hundred priests from forty nations, and they were all hosted free of charge by local families."
The Archbishop also mentions the activities of the "Village of the Mother," a help center for the poor, which was created in the 1990s during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Another positive sign: Angelo Cardinal De Donatis, vicar general of Rome, opened the International Youth Festival in Medjugorje, running from August 1- 6, 2019.