Catholic worshipers who claim to have seen and spoken to the Virgin Mary at a Bosnian landmark received mixed messages from the Vatican on Thursday after the Church refused to say whether their visions were real — while still supporting worship at the site.
The Vatican released a 17-page report, vetted by Pope Francis, which gave its seal of approval to “devotion and spiritual experience” for the faithful in Medjugorje, a Bosnian village that has become a popular pilgrimage site after six children reported seeing the Virgin Mary there in 1981, The New York Times reported.
In the four decades since then, millions have flocked to the area as more visitors claimed the Virgin Mother appeared to them with messages of peace and spiritual guidance.
However, some Catholics have been skeptical of the alleged apparitions, believing those who claim to have been enlightened by the Virgin had ulterior motives — including possible money grabs.
The Vatican said the site has been valuable for many Catholic worshippers but its decision to authorize it for public worship “does not imply that the alleged supernatural events are declared authentic,” the newspaper reported.
The official statement comes after decades of inconclusive investigations into the alleged spiritual phenomenon and Pope Francis reportedly expressing in 2017 that the Virgin Mary was “not a telegraph operator.”
David Murgia, an author and journalist who has written two books about Medjugorje, bashed the Church’s wishy-washy statement on the alleged apparitions after the faithful have been waiting for a conclusive answer for so many years.
“People go to Medjugorje because they think the Virgin appears in real time,” he told the Times. “I think it’s absurd that you tell me that the consequences are good, but not if the origin is real.”
“It’s like saying that fruit is good, but we don’t know if the tree exists,” Murgia told the outlet.
The Vatican said that apparitions and sightings are private experiences for the individuals who reportedly saw them and therefore, Catholics aren’t required to accept their authenticity.
“The faithful are not obliged to believe in [them],” the Church said in its report.
Under new rules cited in the document, a Vatican official will oversee and authorize all of the messages the parish of Medjugorje publishes on its website.
The Vatican also recognized that a majority of the thousands of messages contained “great value and express the constant teachings of the Gospel.”
