A well known former Catholic, now atheist, Irish, homosexual writer Colm Toibin, visited Medjugorje some years ago in order to mock and write about the place and the pilgrims. He found a soul-mate in one US visitor who had decided that the pilgrims were 'seeing things' because they expected to. They had a great time laughing at the idiots, especially a group of pious seminarians who, they decided, had substituted sex obsession with Marian obsession. Anyway, Toibin was present in the church when an apparition occurred and reported that, from the moment the signal was given that Our Lady was present to the signal that she had gone, he saw every one of the many hundreds of the images of Mary that he had seen from early infancy until that day in, as far as he could recall in perfect chronological order. They all flashed before his eyes and he was not conscious of anything else around him. Did it change his mind? Not at all. He had just fallen victim to the obsessions around him, he ventured! What a gift, what a response. He went on to write a blasphemous play about Our Lady (by way of thanks, no doubt).
There is Adoration/Holy Hour from Medjugorje live on Mladfest.com tonight at 7pm Irish time. Will be tuning in as it is very powerful. Tuesdays and Saturdays it is on from 9pm Irish time.
Nice try, but it was good for a chuckle. Condescend much? To propose that someone has to visit a place or read a book first in order to have a valid opinion about it based on facts is crazy. By your logic anyone I assume that you've read the Book of Mormon or the Koran in order to know it is false. Not a very rational argument. Perhaps next time try to address points instead.
To call me 'crazy' is not very rational nor to the point, nor courteous. My point is perfectly logical as I'm sure others would agree, how can your opinion on something of which you have no direct experience be more pertinent than those of people who have such experience? That proposal is illogical (and possibly even crazy). Millions of people who love Our Lady have been there, even if the apparitions were false (which I do not believe), Her responses to those who go there is definitely not false, they have been experienced in highly dramatic ways by millions of pilgrims including myself. Go there and then give us your thoughts, otherwise give some respect to those who have. PS I have read both the Q'ran and the Book of Mormon and other Islamic and Mormon literature to satisfy myself that they are false and to persuade victims of those cults that this is so. Let me recommend that too.
I never called you crazy my friend, I called the proposition crazy. I call it crazy again too. Of course I can weigh in on an apparition without going to the place of it's claimed location there with valid points. Of course I can say that Mormons and Muslims are mistaken without having read all of their "holy" books. And great job reading other faith's books (honestly), but reading all other faith's holy books is hardly necessary in order to come to logical reasonable conclusions about them. You missed my point entirely. This way of arguing is to try to stop people with differing opinions from weighing in. And it isn't a strong one. I suppose the followers of MDM or Bayside or any number of false visionaries have better points than those of us who haven't been there? You seem to be painting yourself into a corner. The apparitions will rise or stand on their own merits, not the personal experiences obtained while visiting their locations. But back to Medjugorje, being that you have been there and are able to answer these questions, how do you explain the video?
Just passing through: I saw this, and thought it was a great explanation - "if religious vocations constitute a sign toward the authenticity of apparitions, then Medjugorje must be one of the most authentic apparitions in Church history, being responsible for countless of vocations to the priesthood around the world. Eminent Church members, from archbishops to cardinals and papal advisors, have acknowledged this reality. During the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, on September 12, 1996, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, the main author of the Catachesim of the Catholic Church, acknowledged this striking reality about Medjugorje while addressing an audience of 10,000 in Vienna. He explained: “If I was an opponent of Medjugorje I’d have to close down my seminary since almost all the candidates have received their call to the priesthood through Medjugorje!” What a remarkable and powerful claim – the fact that almost all of Vienna’s candidates to the priesthood came to the priesthood through the apparitions in Medjugorje. In a future interview with Gebetsktion Wien, a few years later, this past January, Cardinal Schonborn reiterated this claim while explaining why he came to Medjugorje as a pilgrim in 2010. “I will just repeat what I once said in one interview: if there was something wrong about Medjugorje, we would have to dismiss half of our seminarians, since so many of our priestly vocations are both directly and indirectly related to Medjugorje.” Not only did Cardinal Schonborn acknowledge the fruits of faith present in Medjugorje through the immense influence the apparitions have had on priestly vocations but, equally important, he explained how much the sacred example of Medjugorje’s visionaries played a role in inspiring his pilgrimage to the village. “…was in Vienna last year and I spoke with him, Marija Pavlovic Lunetti this year, they were both in Cathedral of St. Stephen and I gave my permission for those events. Both of those two encounters have impressed me so much, primarily because of modesty, simplicity, clarity and heart warmness of those two visionaries. That only strengthened my decision to quietly and simply come to Medjugorje.” Archbishop Georg Eder of Salzburg, Austria, also recognized the undeniable connection between Medjugorje and religious vocations. His words are as powerful as they are urgent for a European culture that has lost its sense of the spiritual. A sense that has been reawakened through Medjugorje. Archbishop Eder explained: “My impressions here are not surprising. I know that groups from Salzburg very often go to Medjugorje, that new prayer groups are constantly started, that there are more and more people who say: ‘In Medjugorje I received my vocation!’” The Archbishop further added – “I am reflecting: We are losing three things that we are getting back in Medjugorje: penance, conversion and vocations. In Austria we look in vain for these things. Conversion is not mentioned anymore because people do not need it; Confession is dying out with us except in shrines and in the churches of religious orders where this sacrament is sought and lived; spiritual vocations are less and less. In Medjugorje this is happening constantly: Confessions, conversions and spiritual vocations!” It is fascinating how in a European culture like Austria’s, wherein faith is constantly ignored and on the decline, hope emanates from a distant Bosnian village. Both Cardinal Schonborn and Archbishop Eder have implied that, if it was not for Medjugorje, then Austrian Catholicism—at least in the realm of priestly vocations—may become obsolete. Thus the influence of the apparitions has played a monumental role in reawakening the spiritual life in Austrian Catholicism. Bishop Paolo Hnilica, an esteemed Jesuit who was close friends with Cardinal Karol Wojtya and, later, a close papal advisor once Wojtya became Pope John Paul II, also acknowledged the fruits of Medjugorje. He once noted about John Paul II: “The Pope, for his part, recognized a long time before that supernatural events are really at work in Medjugorje!” But beyond John Paul II’s love for Medjugorje— (see, “Pope John Paul II – Medjugorje ‘spiritual heart of the world’”)-–Bishop Hnilica himself could not ignore the overwhelming impact that Medjugorje has had in influencing both vocations to religious life as well as miraculous healings. He once noted: “So many are the people who have experienced the presence of Mary at Medjugorje that they cannot be counted, just as the stories of spiritual and even physical healings can no longer be counted. Countless, as well, are the vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life born of the grace of Medjugorje. These are just some of the main spiritual fruits which have brought many to the conclusion that the Queen of Peace is truly present in Medjugorje. Since many of the seminarians who have been inspired to enter religious life as a result of Medjugorje, both future priests and nuns, are young people, this reality itself – Medjugorje’s influence on the youth in converting to, and renewing, the faith – could not be ignored by Church leaders. In 1983, only two years after the apparitions began, Cardinal Kuharic, then-Primate of Croatia, reflected: “How can I doubt that Medjugorje is God’s doing?…Do you know that half a million young people have surrendered to Christ? The Lord is stirring this country! They need fifty to sixty priests every weekend just to hear confessions and to counsel these young people! And it’s all because this apparition!”” https://www.medjugorjemiracles.com/...je-religious-vocations-point-to-authenticity/
" Fr. Donald Calloway, the popular American priest of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception who is a leading proponent of the Divine Mercy devotions, and the author and editor of numerous books on Mariology, was another young person who experienced the grace of Medjugorje in his remarkable conversion story and in his road to the priesthood (see the story, “Father Calloway – Saved by Medjugorje and the Virgin Mary” on MinistryValues). Fr. Calloway, who studied at the Franciscan University in Ohio and at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., acknowledged that even in America—where we often are reminded of the shortage of vocations—Medjugorje has played a central role in encouraging young men to pursue the priesthood. In an interview that Fr. Calloway gave in February 2004, he explained how many young men he met in seminary who were as inspired by Medjugorje as he was to pursue the vocation: “I loved every minute of Medjugorje. I’m going back in March. It’s the edge of Heaven, wonderful…Our Lady is building up this army, this whole new generation, layer by layer. Rank by rank they are coming out of seminaries to take their places. There’s a whole generation of priests coming, and they’re just like me. No nonsense. I always tell people, get ready, because it’s coming to a parish near you…We’ve been formed by the Blessed Virgin Mary and her apparitions. So many of the guys I knew in seminary, they loved things like Medjugorje or Betania or Amsterdam or Kibeho. They don’t have a problem with it. They bite onto truth like a shark, and they’re going to be the guys in the seminaries teaching. They’re going to be in parishes. One cardinal said if it were not for Medjugorje, he would have hardly any seminarians. I compare it to Guadalupe.” Even men who have been ordained for many years have been attracted to Medjugorje, including countless of bishops from the international world. Bishop Stanislas Lukumwena Lumbala from Kole, Congo, once made the fascinating observation about Medjugorje: “One should not worry about approval all the time. The approval will certainly be given. Bishops come, and they come to pray. There is something that we are drawn to, something that has impressed us. Little by little, Medjugorje will be approved!” What is that mysterious something—as the bishop speaks of—which draws bishops, and cardinals, and countless of young people, and pilgrims to Medjugorje? What is that something which inspires massive conversions and leads individuals to religious vocations in countries where the faith seems dead, like Austria or America? Perhaps the answer could be summed up in the words of the late, great pontiff, Pope John Paul II, who once poignantly observed: “Today’s world has lost its sense of the supernatural, but many are searching for it – and find it in Medjugorje, through prayer, penance, and fasting.” The Belgium-Catholic philosopher Alice von Hildebrand once beautifully wrote in an essay: “Now let us abolish the terms ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’, the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ which are secularistic. I suggest that we say from now on ‘those who have kept the sense of the supernatural and those who have lost it’. That is the great divide, that is the essence. Do you look at the Church and her teaching, whether dogmatic or moral, with a supernatural eye, or do you look at it with secular lenses? That is the divide. Left and right confuses the issue. Let us rediscover the greatness and the beauty of the supernatural…” At Medjugorje, countless of people, young and old, have rediscovered the greatness and the beauty of the supernatural, realizing that the miraculous is not a thing of the past but something that exists in the modern world. This sublime rediscovery has opened the door to religious vocations in the most unexpected places, transcending the standards and norms of modern secular culture with a spiritual awakening so profound and powerful that it could only be explained as a grace of God. By Daniel Klimek February 4, 2011" See also: https://www.medjugorjemiracles.com/2011/10/famous-medjugorje-testimony-of-conversion-patrick-latta/ " “My kids had everything money could buy,” reflected Patrick. “And it corrupted them. Icorrupted them.” Patrick Latta sharing his Medjugorje testimony Patrick didn’t change his ways, even after marrying his third wife, Nancy, a lapsed Catholic. Then one day, Nancy handed him a book, containing messages from Medjugorje. Patrick gave it back, telling her to throw it away, but his wife retorted, “You throw it away, my pagan husband. Let it be on your conscience.” Patrick suddenly found himself wrestling with a conscience he didn’t know he had. To allay this strange new feeling of guilt, he decided to read nothing more than “a little two-liner,” before throwing the paperback away. So he opened to the back of the book and laid eyes on the shortest message he could find: I call you to conversion for the last time. “I don’t know what happened at that moment,” Patrick told us pilgrims. “I have no idea to this day what happened. All of a sudden, my heart was beating twenty miles per hour, and tears were running down my cheeks. ‘Nancy!” I yelled, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about these messages? Nancy, why didn’t you tell me that they were true? Nancy, that message was for me!’ It was the first time I saw myself. I had been living in mortal sin for thirty years. I had walked away from the Catholic Church when I was fourteen years old, saying, ‘I don’t need this.’ You can walk out of the Church and walk straight into hell quite easily—a lot easier than you can walk into heaven. You get into mortal sin, and then you convince yourself you’re right. ‘I can do what I want. I don’t need Church. I don’t need Confession.’ My Italian immigrant mother—five feet, two inches, both ways—prayed for me for forty-eight years. Forty-eight years of rosaries, and she saw nothing. Then one day, one message changed my life. I believe her prayers helped me believe that the Medjugorje messages were true.”
Even Colm Toibin, a hater of all things Catholic, went there before he published his thoughts on the subject. Schonborn is not my idea of a Catholic cardinal but then many clerics like him despise all claims of Marian apparitions, so what does his approval/involvement prove?
Cardinal Schonborn has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery in May. He was recovering in June. Maybe we should offer a prayer for him instead of disgust. I think he made excellent points about vocations for the priesthood due to Medjugorje in the article Xavier presented.
Interview with Msgr. Célestin Hakizimana, Bishop of Gikongoro (includes Kibeho), Rwanda on the occassion of his visiting Medjugorje for the first time. Interview by SABRINA ČOVIĆ RADOJIČIĆ for Glasnik Mira (Messenger of Peace magazine June 2019) Note: Online translation may contain irregular phrasing Introduction The apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Kibeho, Rwanda began in 1981, the same year as in Medjugorje, but in contrast to Medjugorje, in 2001, they were officially recognized by the Church. This is mostly due to the fact that the apparitions ended in 1989. Two study commissions, one of doctors and one of theologians worked from April 1982 to provide a thorough investigation of the phenomena. Their studies culminated in exhaustive reports in favor of the supernatural apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Kibeho. However, only the first three visionaries were acknowledged as credible: Alphonsine, Nathalie and Marie-Claire. The commission stated that there is more reasons to believe the apparitions than deny them. [ Here is stated #2 in the approval letter from the Bishop. Various reasons justify the choice by Our Lady of these three visionaries already approved as visionaries. These witnesses, historically linked, were the only ones on the scene for some months, at least up to June 1982. They are the ones who made Kibeho known as a place of apparitions and pilgrimage causing crowds of people to flock there. What is more important is that Alphonsine, Nathalie and Marie Claire corresponded satisfactorily to all the criteria established by the Church in the matter of private apparitions and revelations. In contrast, the evolution of the alleged subsequent visionaries, especially after the apparitions were over, reflects disquieting personal situations, which have reinforced the existing reservations in regard to them and discouraged ecclesiastical authorities from proposing them to the faithful as points of reference.] Alphonsine and Nathalie continue to testify to what they experienced, while Marie-Claire died during the unprecedented genocide committed by the Hutu people against the people of Tutsi. The bloodshed that Our Lady warned at the very start of her apparitions in Kibeho and which started thirteen years later was a fulfillment of the prophecy that she warned about. It is thought that about a million people lost their lives in this bloody campaign. The comparisons between the Queen of Peace and the Mother of the Word are easily seen because they include the basic messages of peace, prayer and conversion. Therefore, we should also approach reasonable discernment by directing attention to what has been already been confirmed as credible. Bishop Hakizimana has entrusted us with a complete book that summarizes the facts about the apparitions of Kibeho. Kibeho is located in the south of Rwanda, in the diocese headed by Mons. Célestin Hakizimana, who arrived for the first time in Medjugorje last month (May 2019). Bishop Hakizimana explains: I was born in 1963 in the Kigali diocese. For the Priesthood, I was ordained on July 21, 1991. For five years I worked in the Catholic schools in the Kigali diocese and for the next six years within the Catholic Church in Rwanda. I continued my studies in Naples, Italy where I graduated with an advanced degree in dogmatic theology, with an emphasis on logic. In 2011, after completing my doctoral study, I returned to Rwanda, where I served as the Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference of Rwanda. Four years later I was appointed bishop of Gikongoro diocese. This is my life path. Question: Since you are a bishop in the diocese that is home to Kibeho, tell us something about this sanctuary. Bishop Hakizimana: The apparitions in Kibeho began in the same year as in Medjugorje. They continued for several years. The apparition of the Virgin Mary was experienced by several persons. At the beginning of the apparition, the church set up two commissions: theological and medical. These commissions carefully followed all the apparitions to finally report to the local ordinary, who had contact with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In 2001, the local bishop and the Vatican, admitted the credibility of the apparitions in Kibeho, but only those of the three girls who had first experienced them. These were the Alphonsine, who first experienced the apparition of the Virgin Mary on November 28, 1981, then Nathalie, to which Lady was appeared from January 12, 1982, and the third was Marie-Claire, to whom the Lady began to appear on March 2, 1982. Each of them received messages and each received a mission to focus their prayers on a certain intention. Alphonsine was told to pray for priests, especially for the Church, and received a call to become a nun. She now lives in Guba and is a cloistered Sister in the order of St. Clare. The visionary Nathalie lives in Kibeho, and has received a call to be a missionary to ease the suffering of the people. She has made it her mission to show people how to offer their sufferings to Jesus. The Virgin told her, “No one will reach heaven without suffering,” or, “A child of Mary does not reject suffering.” Suffering is both a means of compensating for the sins of the world and participating in Jesus’ and Mary’s sufferings for the salvation of the world. It is her mission to teach this to the pilgrims. The third visionary, Marie-Claire, received a mission to pray for families, also received the task of teaching the Holy Rosary of the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary to families. Unfortunately, during the genocide in 1994, she and her husband were killed. It is our duty to continue their mission of family prayer and the propagation of the Rosary and messages of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady in Kibeho ended the apparitions in 1989 with the visionaries with the words that the public apparitions are over and closed. For this reason, deciding on the authenticity of the apparition was greatly facilitated. Question: What is the main guiding point of Our Lady's message from Kibeho? Answer: The message sent to Kibeho actually appears to the same as the message from Medjugorje. The Virgin Mary has specifically asked people to turn away from sin that is turning the world to evil. She said, "The world hastens to its ruin, it will fall into the abyss.” The Virgin Mother requested not only from Christians but also from the whole world a conversion, a change of heart, and repentance through prayer. She also asked for prayer, not prayer as anyone desires, but prayer without hypocrisy, and especially prayer for those who do not pray and for those who do wrong. The Virgin Mary also showed people that the world is very sick. She showed several scenes to the visionaries depicting our ruin. The Virgin Mary taught that suffering does not bring death, only through suffering can we break through to eternal life. That breakthrough is not celebrated on the Good Friday, but on the day of Resurrection. Our Lady of Kibeho also reminds of the forgotten chaplet of Seven Sorrows, which I see is known in Međugorje. She was constantly asking that we pray the Rosary every day, but that we should also remember the Seven Sorrows on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesday because Tuesday is the day when Mairie Claire began, and on Fridays we remember Jesus' death and during Lent, on the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14th), and on September 15, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. In addition, she asked the pilgrims to build a chapel to show that the Virgin Mary visited Kibeho as Mother of the Word. This was the name she was called. All the visionaries asked the Virgin Mary for her name and she replied, "I am the Mother of the Word." Question: What else would you consider as a special feature of the apparition to Kibeho? Answer: What I can specially mention are the mystical voyages on which the Virgin Mary has taken the visionary. I can point out three mystical experiences. On the first mystical voyage, she showed from above rivers of blood. She showed bodies of the dead scattered across the country. Then the visionaries were frightened and inquired of the Lady: "What is it?" Our Lady replied, "What you have seen is a warning, if you do not turn to the Lord, you will see in reality." The people did not change enough and genocide happened. Another extraordinary thing that we have witnessed in Kibeho was about the penance that the Virgin Mary imposed on Nathalie during the Lent of 1983. The visionary spent 15 days without water and drinks, not taking any food except for the Eucharist. The medical committee closely watched Nathalie, as they wanted to monitor whether she drank water or ate food, and above all because they wanted to monitor her health, and in case of illness, they could intervene. After she finished her 15-day fast, the commission members were cautious about Nathalie beginning food on an empty stomach, but her health was actually good after these 15 days and there was no problem. Nathalie still continues with this spiritual retreat of 15 days, from February 16 to March 2, but with a moderate fast, she eats only to survive. Also, the Virgin Mary showed them heaven and hell. So they were in ecstasy, but between the two worlds. They were between the world where they were with the Virgin Mary with whom they saw, heard, and talked, but only their voices could be heard by the assembled people.
2nd page of interview with Bishop of Kibeho Question: Could they talk to people during the apparition? Answer: During the apparitions, although they were in ecstasy, their speech was clear and understandable to those gathered around them. At the conclusion of an apparition, the visionary would collapse stiffly to the ground like a tree falling over. Then the Sisters would tend to them and take care of them. Question: Have you had the opportunity to study the similarities between messages between Međugorje and Kibeho? Answer: There are great similarities. In Kibeho, the Bishop of that time summed up the message in 10 points (see below), which were published in all books, in all circular scripts that were written. By studying the Medjugorje messages and comparing them with messages in Kibeho, we can truly see continuity, even great similarities. Furthermore, when we are talking about prayer, Our Lady recommended prayer, especially the prayer of the Rosary, and told us: "Pray without hypocrisy, pray for those who do not pray and pray for those who can not pray." There is another similarity: the importance of confessions. She said, "Come back, go to confession." What may be different is the words she said here: "Peace, Peace, Peace." In 1981 we really had peace. There was no war. But that peace can also come from prayer or conversion. The one thing that we especially notice is in Kibeho that is different from Medjugorje, is that the visionaries were speaking aloud during the apparitions so that we who were near them could hear them. The visionaries agreed that they could clearly hear what the Virgin Mary was talking about. This has been carefully noted by the theological and doctors' commissions. The Virgin Mary is shown in Medjugorje in June 1981 and gives her the first message that reads: "Peace, Peace, Peace! Peace between man and God and peace between men. "In the former Yugoslavia, war began 10 years later. The Virgin Mary appeared in Kibeho at the end of November 1981, and the war begins in 1994, 13 years later. So if there are apparitions, be warned! "Attention! Something's going to happen! "But people did not understand. Neither here nor in Kibeho. We really need to heed the Mother's warnings. But today, Kibeho is called the African Lourdes. Question: Is it really an African Lourdes or could you define the shrine of Kibeho today? Answer: Apparitions in Kibeho are the first in Africa that the Church proudly proclaimed credible. The reason why Kibeho is known as the 'African Lourdes' because it is a site of pilgrimage to Our Mother. Our Lady in Lourdes left a permanent sign of her presence, similarily the visionaries wondered if a similar sign would be left in Kibeho. The Virgin Mary said, "You will have a source, but in a different way." Shortly thereafter, the local bishop utilized a previously known source of water in a valley at the foot of the mountain for water to bless. The Eucharist was celebrated around the source. Yes, people from this source take water, bring it to use for blessing, and some even drink that water. We have testimonies that tell us that some have been healed after drinking it. Personally, I know people who are cured: The lame who went to the spring, drank the water and then threw his crutches and stood on his feet. Since then, people regularly visit Kibeho. The child of a Muslim was also healed after her mother had put water from the spring on his wound. After a miraculous healing, they became fervent Catholics. Question: Are there many religious in Kibeho? Answer: There is certainly the presence of many different orders of priests and religious. We have recently marked the 25th anniversary of genocide in Kibeho. Then we recalled 20 priests and nuns from Kibeho who were killed during the genocide. Question: What is the relationship between the Bishops' Conference of Rwanda towards Kibeho? Answer: At the Bishops' Conference they know that Kibeho is of great importance. The message here is not just about the people in Kibeho, not just the Rwandans, but the whole world. The Virgin Mary said, "This is a message destined for the whole world." That is why the Bishops' Conference organizes pilgrimages to Kibeho every month. For example, one week a group of young adults come, the second week children come and so on ...the whole month. All Catholic movements at the state level organize an annual pilgrimage to Kibeho. The Bishops' Conference in Kibeho is organizing a national holiday celebration. For example, this year began the National Day of Reconciliation. Also this year we celebrated the jubilee of 100 years of consecrated life in Rwanda. And the Feast of Our Lady is especially important for us because the Virgin Mary was shown in tears with the words: "I brought you by the hand and you did not believe me. You did not accept me. I came to save you, but you are lost, and it can not make me happy. "The celebration of the beginning and the end of the apparitions is celebrated on November 28, because this is when the Virgin Mary came. It was proclaimed that this day be declared a non-working day in the country. Question: Is this your first pilgrimage to Medjugorje? Answer: Years ago, my friends from Austria and my friend François Eliat Eliat from Belgium invited me. I had to kindly refuse to go because I was told that I must be careful because the Vatican has not yet approved the apparitions. But ever since the Vatican appointed the Apostolic Vicar Msgr. Hoser, I realized that he was serious about paying attention to Medjugorje, so I said, "I know Hoser, I'm going there!" But in spite of the invitation I received, the time schedule did not allow me to accept them. This time I could not reject the invitation of Sister Hildegard from the Béatitudes community and I'm happy to finally come here. Question: What are your first impressions about Medjugorje? What are the similarities and differences with your shrine? Answer: I think that in some things, in fact, I can not compare it. In Medjugorje, there are many more priests. It is evident that the sanctuary is also more developed. And in Kibeho we nurture Marian spirituality, highlight the message and spread it to the world. When the message is known, it will be easier to create an atmosphere of prayer, to follow the prayer program, and to increase the number of pastoral staff and improve the infrastructure. At the moment in Kibeho at the Sanctuary we only have three priests who are helping the pilgrims. We should also improve the basic infrastructure. Particularly a big problem is the road that leads to Kibeho is rutted and full of bumps and this is one reason for the fewer number of pilgrims than here in Medjugorje. Another example, we have a problem with the confessional. Since we confess out in the open, rain creates difficulties. But we are just working on the organization and I know that the Virgin Mary will help us and do what we need to spread her message. The Medjugorje pilgrimage is a powerful week of fasting and prayer. Sister Hildegard called me to attend the spiritual renewal. I did not know what it was, but she explained it to me. I'm a priest for 26 years. I did spiritual exercises and felt rejuvenated. We also had days of fasting as like those experienced during Lent, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I came with a group from Brussels who know the spirituality of Kibeho and have spread it all over the world. I wanted to join this group so we could experience this together. Question: Do you think that is something that suits you and what could you suggest in Kibeho? Answer: I'm going to be kidding a bit, so I'll say pilgrims in Kibeho because of the lack of infrastructure are constantly practicing the fast. There are no restaurants in Kibeho or places where they can buy food and they are almost forced to go. Interestingly, there is a phenomenon of inculturation in the prayer. The Virgin Mary in Kibeho sang and danced with the visionaries. In Medjugorje Her attitude toward them is very maternal. She is a true Mother. We can not imagine here (Medjugorje) that the Virgin Mary would dance. Perhaps it is conceivable to see her sing, but certainly not to dance. She danced in Kibeho because it is something in the African genes, which is why joy is expressed in the direction of the dance or the dance. The Virgin Mary is shown as the true Mother. I think the Virgin Mary, similar to Jesus, is embodied in every culture. When she comes, she is reliant on the local tradition in order to be properly understood and how people should not be scared. I think that wherever appears, she adapts herself to the public and culture to make it easier to understand its message. Sometimes she taught the visionaries in Kibeho songs to sing, and even corrected them if they made mistakes.
3rd page of interview with Bishop of Kibeho Question: Have you had the opportunity to meet with the visionaries? Answer: Yes, we work together and meet. Especially with Nathalie, who is in Kibeho. We especially met the first few years when I became bishop. She is a message keeper from Kibeho. Sometimes there is someone who misunderstand the messages. She intervenes when the message is changed from the original. She plays, therefore, the role as a message keeper. I accept the suggestions she gives me, and she is helps with providing health insurance, food and shelter to those in need. Sometimes I visit to talk about practical things. She visits us when we celebrate a feast in the diocese, even though the pain in her back is still very active. Alphonsine lives in a cloistered convent in Guba and I visited her only once. She often writes to me and I answer her. We keep in touch. Question: What is your connection with Belgium? Answer: I have many good friends in Belgium. The group "Maranatha!" is based in Belgium. Many Rwandans live in Belgium. When I went to Belgium, we held a mass at the basilica and then went to Gent for lectures and prayers. It was wonderful. We continue to visit them, and they are constantly visiting us. We want to work with the Maranatha association because we want to build a world of peace, a world of reconciliation and fraternity. In Medjugorje we see that religious communities are engaged in the life of the parish. Question: What is the state of affairs at that level in Kibeho? Answer: My predecessor asked that any religious community operating in Kibeho had to provide pastoral help for the sanctuary. Before his death there were several communities. There are Pallottines from the Society of Catholic Apostles who have been governing the sanctuary, there are the Marian fathers of the Immaculate Conception who come from the first male congregation dedicated to Our Lady, then Benebikira sisters who lead the School of Girls "Mother of the Word" where the apparitions commenced. Now, cooperation is not too visible. After the death of my predecessor, the communities organized as they wanted. They forgot about the bishop's request that any community that wishes to settle in Kibeho must also contribute to the sanctuary. We recently held a meeting in order to restore my predecessor's instructions. We have mandated all communities to appoint at least one representative for the service of the sanctuary, which is especially important in the meeting of the pilgrims and the initiation of the spiritual life of the sanctuary. Now we are working on the organization and the communities agree. The Rwandan liturgy is characterized by great beauty and enormous respect. Question: You often met Hoser while in Africa. How was your meeting with him here in Medjugorje? Answer: I met Father Hoser as a young priest. Mons. Hoser was then the head of a medical center run by Pallottinians. After the war, he was appointed deputy of the Apostolic Nuncio for Rwanda. We met at various meetings or on missions, and he also worked near my office. He was then appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Nations. He was in Rome, and I was a student in Naples. He always said that his first homeland was Poland, and the other was Rwanda. His heart is in Rwanda. I'm glad he just became an apostolic visitor in Medjugorje. I visited him yesterday. He did not expect to see me. He greeted me in the Rwanda language and called for a lunch after which we talked for a long time. These days we will meet for some time. 10 points summarizing the messages of Kibeho taken from http://kibeho-sanctuary.com/index.php/en/introduction 1 °. An urgent appeal to the repentance and conversion of hearts: “Repent, repent, repent!" "Convert while there is still time." 2 °. An assessment of the moral state of the world: "The world conducts itself very badly." ("Ngo isi imeze nabi cyane.") "The world hastens to its ruin, it will fall into the abyss”, in other words, “it is plunged into innumerable and unrelenting disasters." ("Ngo isi igiye kugwa mu rwobo.") "The world is rebellious against God (ubu isi yarigometse), it commits too many sins, it has neither love nor peace." "If you do not repent and do not convert your hearts, you will fall into the abyss." 3 °. The deep sorrow of the Mother of God: The visionaries said to have seen the Virgin Mary crying on August 15th, 1982. The Mother of God was very saddened because of people’s unbelief and lack of repentance. She complained of our bad way of life, which is characterized by the slackness of customs, the likeness of evil, and continuous disobedience to God’s Commandments. 4 °. "Faith and unbelief will come unseen". (“Ngo ukwemera n’ubuhakanyi bizaza mu mayeri.”) These mysterious words were repeatedly spoken by Mary to Alfonsine at the beginning of the revelations. She was asked to repeat them to the other people. 5 °. The suffering that saves: This subject is among the most important among the revelations in Kibeho, particularly for Natalie Mukamazimpaka. Suffering, which is unavoidable in this life, is necessary for Christians to attain eternal glory. On May 15th, 1982, Mary said to her visionaries, especially to Natalie, “No one will reach heaven without suffering,” or, “A child of Mary does not reject suffering.” Suffering is both a means of compensating for the sins of the world and participating in Jesus’ and Mary’s sufferings for the salvation of the world. The visionaries were invited through this address to live very specifically, accepting suffering through faith in love, mortifying themselves and denying themselves pleasures for the conversion of the world. Thus, Kibeho is a reminder of the role of the cross in the life of a Christian and the Church. 6 °. “Pray always and single-heartedly”: People are not praying, and those who do pray, do not pray as they should. Mary begs the visionaries to pray in abundance for the whole world, to teach others to pray, and to pray for those who do not pray themselves. Mary begs us to pray with greater zeal and purity of heart. 7 °. Marian devotion – expressed through sincere and regular praying of the rosary. 8 °. The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary: The visionary Marie Claire Mukangango said to have received revelations about the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary. The blessed Virgin loves this rosary. Well known in the past, it had been forgotten. The Mother of God of Kibeho desires for it to be renewed and spread in the Church. However, this prayer does not replace the Holy Rosary. 9 °. Mary desires that a chapel be built for her – as a sign of the remembrance of her revelations in Kibeho. This subject appears in the revelations of January 16th, 1982 and recurs many times in the course of the year with new supplements. 10 °. Pray always for the Church, when many troubles are upon it in the times to come. Thus Mary said to Alfonsine on August 15th, 1983 and on November 28th, 1983.
Ok. dispute it..... My point is there is actually an event that may be supernatural caught on film...video(from the 1960's) to dispute. Where's the comparable Medjugorje event? Except the flinch.
I applaud the Vicar General of Rome for celebrating Mass at such a spiritual place such as Medjugorje. I'm sure he is aware of the complexities of this apparition site, like many of the Roman Catholic laity.
https://translate.google.com/transl...hiesa/pagine/hoser-medjugorje-faro-spirituale From the Italian news site Avvenire The apostolic visitor. Hoser: thus Medjugorje is a spiritual beacon by Giacomo Gambassi, sent to Sarajevo Tuesday, July 23, 2019 The Polish archbishop "sent" by the Pope speaks. "No trace of heresy". The Nuncio Pezzuto: the heart of everything is the Virgin, regardless of any supernatural facts "It was an intense year, all in the sign of Our Lady". On July 22, 2018 , Archbishop Henryk Hoser began his ministry as an apostolic visitor to Medjugorje, the town of Herzegovina where, since June 1981, six young people (now adults) claim to see the Virgin and receive his messages. Seventy-six years old, emeritus of Warsaw-Prague, a Pallottine with a degree in medicine and a past as a missionary in Africa and then as assistant secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Hoser lives today in the parish house next to the church of San Giacomo, entrusted to the Franciscan Friars Minor, who owes his fame to the alleged Marian apparitions. An apartment and a study form his episcopate since Pope Francis sent him - indefinitely and directly under the Holy See - to the hills of Križevac and Podbrdo with purely pastoral tasks. «Medjugorje is an international prayer reference where extraordinary spiritual fruits are touched. I refer for example to conversions, priestly and religious vocations, and incessant confessions. I do not think there are traces of heresy ", explains the Polish archbishop. We meet him in the nunciature of Sarajevo, hosted by the apostolic nuncio in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto , together with the provincial of the Franciscan Friars Minor of Herzegovina, Father Miljenko Steko . Three "experts" of what happens in the place that has become famous in the world, which each year attracts over two million people. The ban on organizing pilgrimages has fallen since last May. "People say they feel the presence of the Madonna - emphasizes Hoser -. But having allowed pilgrimages should not be interpreted as an authentication of the well-known events linked to the name of Medjugorje. This is a place, blessed by God, of encounter and dialogue with the Lord through the Virgin, marked by silence, the Rosary, meditation, catechesis, the celebration of the Sacraments, in particular the Eucharist and that of Reconciliation ". The article continues at the the link shown above.
Medjugorje: The visionary Marija comments on the last message received: The time of Mary’s triumph…”Prepare for new times on earth!” https://mysticpost.com/2019/07/medj...marys-triumph-prepare-for-new-times-on-earth/ ================================================================================================ Medjugorje: Godmother Vicka in Rome for baptism issues warning: ‘Today is a very, very difficult moment in the world. Our Lady is very worried.” https://www.patheos.com/blogs/mysti...moment-in-the-world-our-lady-is-very-worried/
