Medjugorje News & Articles

An Inquiry into the Calling and Mission of the Church Today

If one inquires about particularly conspicuous signs of hope in today's Church, the new spiritual communities or movements are very often being mentioned. This is certainly justified since, as a whole, they represent an authentic Christian answer to the challenge of the cultural situation of the faith (cp. Medard Kehl SJ, "Communio" - a Paling Vision? In Voices of the Times, Journal no. 7/1997,453).

The Council documents have always stressed the community of the entire People of God in the mission and calling of the Church in the midst of the world. Also the bishops' synods of the last decades have acknowledged the community of the Church as a gift of the Spirit in the multitude of charisms and forms of life: The Calling and Mission of the Laity> (1987), Priestly Formation in Relation to the Present Times (1990) and The Consecrated Life (1994).

While thinking about the theme assigned, the word of John comes to mind: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." (1 Jn 1:1-3)

Someone said that the problem of the meaning of history is precisely in this, does man know and is he at all aware and is it granted to him to discover the truth about himself while that history is still ongoing. Namely, does history, which offers so many signs of coincidences, so much irrationality, still reveal, in spite of everything, the necessity, which brings along some sort of justification for everything that has happened in the past?

On June 24, 1981, six children in the town of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia (today, Bosnia-Herzegovina), began to experience phenomena which they alleged to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This apparition had a message of peace for the world, as well as a call to conversion, prayer and fasting. It also entrusted to the children secret messages about events to be fulfilled in the future. These "secrets," confided individually to different visionaries, have not been revealed to the public. The apparitions themselves have continued almost daily since 1981, with some of the now young adults continuing to experience them regularly (those who have not yet received all the secrets intended for them) and others not. Originally they occurred on a hilltop near the town where a large Cross commemorating the Redemption exists. They have since occurred in many other places, including the parish church, St. James, and wherever the visionaries happen to be located at the time of the apparition.

The French Bishops

During the last assembly of the Bishops of France, a question put by a member of the Conference was the subject of a written response by Msgr. H. Brincard, Bishop of Puy-en-Velay, responsible for overseeing the Association of Marian organizations. This response was made at the request of the Permanent Council. Regarding some facts having a certain repercussion, Bishop Brincard wanted solely to bring an ecclesial light, which we can hope will contribute to strengthening the unity of the People of God. Is not the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, in a very particular way, the servant of this unity?

The text is taken from the official bulletin of the French Episcopal Conference (SNOP), No. 1064, printed in La Documentation Catholique of 7 January 2000.

On other places of pilgrimage where Our Lady was appearing, some miracles have happened, and this is beautiful. But here, for such a long time, Our Lady is giving messages, is continuing to speak. I would say that, here, Our Lady continues to speak to the humanity. She is not doing it from a pulpit, but as a mother. Those who want to hear and to obey – they listen. Those who do not want – they don’t listen. Our Lady is continuing to speak here. I think that this is because the time, in which we live, is powerful and important as no time before. I our time, Our Lady is observing as a mother, seeing our reality and coming to help us to think again about our way of life and about the world in which we live.

When I was this September on a pilgrimage in Medjugorje, I visited some of the places, where pilgrims usually go and where I was already during my previous visits. I visited e.g. the St. James Church, Statue of the Risen Saviour, Apparition Hill, Oasis of Peace, Cenacolo community and other places. On this pilgrimage, I noticed another interesting place, which I will also gladly visit again on my next pilgrimages to Medjugorje.

The fact is, without doubt, clear that many prayer groups that have started in the world have been founded by Medjugorje pilgrims. This has happened and is happening at the explicit desire of Our Lady to establish groups. It is difficult to find out the exact number, but there are already thousands of prayer groups.