MEDJUGORJE:
THE MESSAGES AND GRACES
by Dudley Plunkett
Introduction
Many Catholics and Christians of other denominations believe that Mary, the Mother of
Jesus, has truly been appearing since 1981 to a group of villagers in Medjugorje,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, speaking to them about the spiritual state of the world, and through
them calling on everyone to have faith in Gods love and promise of eternal salvation.
Some Catholics who accept the possibility of such events are unwilling to give them
credence so long as the Catholic Church has not backed them with its official authority,
as is the case with Medjugorje at the time of writing. Some other Christians cannot accept
that it should be Mary rather than Jesus who brings a message from Heaven. And probably
the majority of people disbelieve because they do not think there is a personal God, and
so refuse to accept any mystical events of this kind.
Why does it matter whether Medjugorje is of God or not? If the apparitions are in some way
faked or merely imagined then they would indeed be a cruel illusion for many who have
placed their faith in them. And, in so far as their influence spreads among the faithful,
these or any other visions that were shown to be false could harm the standing of the
Catholic religion. If, however, these apparitions are what millions of pilgrims to
Medjugorje evidently believe, namely guidance to perplexed humanity in a dark hour, then
ignoring them would be an illusion and harmful, since it would be to turn a deaf ear to
Heaven speaking for humanitys good. A decision has therefore to be made by the Church
eventually, but even if the Church were to say tomorrow that there is nothing contrary to
Church teachings or morals in the apparitions, it would never require belief in what is
regarded as private revelation, as opposed to the public revelation of Scripture. There
remains then a personal responsibility to discern what is at stake.
I believe that Medjugorje is immensely important, and I shall be seeking to indicate how
this is so, not by opinion but by the facts of the case. I shall do this in three main
ways. First, I want to allow the messages received by the visionaries of Medjugorje the
chance to speak for themselves, since I believe they appear to an open-minded person to be
an authentic spiritual guide. Second, I will mention some of the extraordinary results of
Medjugorje, the impact it has had on peoples lives and on the Church over the past two
decades. This influence has now extended all over the world and has awakened faith in
large numbers of lapsed Catholics and non-believers. And third, I will explain the way in
which the Church has reacted to the events of Medjugorje. While it cannot officially
approve the apparitions while they are still continuing and may exhibit as yet unknown
elements, there has been no official statement from Rome against Medjugorje.This is
despite the disbelief in the apparitions of the last two local bishops of Mostar, who
would normally have jurisdiction over such matters.
My hope is that this summary of what Medjugorje represents will be of help to the reader
in making their own mind about the trustworthiness of the apparitions. It is not possible
to give proofs, but it would be enough if a person felt better informed, and ready to
deepen their awareness of the rich field of private revelation in the history of the
Church, without which we would not have the Franciscan Order, stemming from Francis vision
in the church of San Damiano, the fervent faith of Latin America, which dates from the
apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Guadalupe, the care for the sick of Lourdes, following
the appearance of Mary to Bernadette, or the famous secrets of Fatima which prophesied the
end of the First World War, the spread and the overthrow of Communism and, according to
the highest Church authorities, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II sixty-four
years before it took place.
The Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary is a significant figure in both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The
Catholic Church has always taught that special reverence is due to her as the mother of
Jesus. She has been seen from the earliest Christian times as an intercessor with God. We
see her in Lukes gospel acting in this way by putting a request to Jesus, at the marriage
feast of Cana, on behalf of the hosts who had run out of wine. Over the centuries
the faithful always venerated Mary, and there are very numerous shrines in her name. The
Catholic Church has given official recognition to many apparitions of the Virgin, with the
messages and teachings that accompanied them, but usually only after long periods during
which they had been unofficially accepted by the faithful. The most prominent such event
in recent times was at Fatima, in Portugal, in 1917, with its messages about the future of
the world and the need for prayer and penance to avert war and the evil, and eternal,
consequences of sin.
To understand what has been happening in Medjugorje, I believe that it is necessary to
come to terms with the content of the messages and their importance as spiritual guidance
for those who feel confused or doubting, and where the Church itself is often not able to
respond effectively in a hostile cultural environment. Our Lady comes to the rescue, as it
were, not to change our circumstances but to underline the gospel remedy for our
spiritual ills. She is looking for an individual response, in how people seek holiness and
how they reach out to others to bring them to Jesus. She offers a challenge and an
invitation, and she promises help. It is such a beautiful and urgent message, but it is
not yet being sufficiently heard.
The Medjugorje apparitions
Signs of the times
The basic events of Medjugorje are fairly
widely known, and can be read about much more thoroughly than in the brief account I shall
offer. On the other hand, these events are still so recent that it seems to me that they
have still to be understood in their full significance. One of the people who have shown
real insight in interpreting the events of Medjugorje was Mgr George Tutto, who noticed
several conjunctions of events concerning the life of the Church, including the first
reported apparitions at Medjugorje, which occurred in the space of less than fifty days in
1981.
What are these events, at first sight only very tenuously connected?
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First, a conference of charismatic leaders in Rome, addressed by Pope John Paul on 7 May 1981, in which he entrusted their work for renewal in and of the church to Mary the Mother of God and our Mother. |
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Second, a time of prayer ministry at this same conference in which Fr Emiliano Tardif and Sr Briege McKenna prayed with a Franciscan friar from an obscure parish in Herzegovina called Medjugorje, and Fr Tardif spoke the prophecy: I am sending you my mother. |
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Third, the attempt on the life of the Pope on 13 May 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, and his seemingly miraculous escape from death. |
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Fourth, the Popes prayer on 7 June, the Feast of Pentecost, entrusting the whole human family to Mary, and appealing to Mary to come as a sign of sure hope and consolation saying very specifically: And so today we repeat: Come, placing our trust in your motherly intercession, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. |
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Fifth, the apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje, which were reported to have commenced 17 days later, on 24 June 1981, the Feast of John the Baptist. |
I do not believe we can at this stage fully
understand the potential significance of these events, since they are still unfolding.
Further recent facts have become known. The Third Secret of Fatima, made public on 26 June
2000, has been understood as prophesying the assassination attempt on the Popes life. He
understood it as such, after he had called for the text of the secret to be brought
to him at the Gemello Clinic in July. He had already concluded that it was the Virgin Mary
who had saved him, but this was confirmation. This surely explains why, in his speech at
Fatima on 13 May 1982, where he had gone as an act of thanksgiving for the saving of his
life, the Pope said I saw in everything that was happening the special motherly protection
of our Lady, and why he several times in subsequent years alluded to his conviction that
he had been miraculously saved and given extra years to live.
But why relate all this to Medjugorje rather than simply to Fatima? This can only be
because the Medjugorje apparitions came so soon after the Popes appeal to our Lady, and
her messages to Medjugorje and to the world are closely consequent upon the Fatima
messages. It seems that a heavenly plan links the Medjugorje events with those at Fatima.
The next instalment will deal with the beginning of the apparitions, the visionaries, and the other personalities of Medjugorje. Subsequent sections will speak of Our Lady and her messages and the wonderful developments and implications that stem from them.