Vatican approves devotion at Medjugorje while not pronouncing on authenticity of ‘alleged messages’

A statue of Our Lady in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. / Credit: Gnuckx via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Rome Newsroom, Sep 19, 2024 / 09:23 am (CNA).

In a highly anticipated report on the alleged decadeslong apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Thursday endorsed prudent devotion to Mary at the popular pilgrimage site in Bosnia and Herzegovina yet withheld any declaration on whether the alleged visions are supernatural in origin.

The Sept. 19 note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), signed by prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and approved by Pope Francis in an Aug. 28 audience, grants a “nihil obstat” to the spiritual experience at Medjugorje. The authoritative judgment means that pilgrims may continue to visit and pray at the site, as some 40 million people from around the world have done since the apparitions allegedly first began 43 years ago. 

Six children, who are now middle-aged, first reported experiencing visions of the Blessed Mother, originally on a hilltop near the rural village of Medjugorje, on June 24, 1981. The Vatican’s report notes that the remote site, formerly part of Yugoslavia, is now widely “perceived as a space of great peace, recollection, and a piety that is sincere, deep, and easily shared.”

While it offers no definitive judgment on the supernatural authenticity of the alleged apparitions, the Vatican’s report highlights the abundant good fruits that have come from Medjugorje.

“The positive fruits are most evident in the promotion of a healthy practice of a life of faith, in accordance with the tradition of the Church,” the report states. 

It points to “abundant conversions, a frequent return to the sacraments (particularly, the Eucharist and reconciliation), many vocations to priestly, religious, and married life, a deepening of the life of faith, a more intense practice of prayer, many reconciliations between spouses, and the renewal of marriage and family life.” 

“It should be noted,” the report emphasizes, “that such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meetings with the ‘visionaries’ to be present for the alleged apparitions.”

Fernández presented the report in a two-hour-long press conference at the Holy See Press Office on Sept. 19.

The prelate quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s 1985 statement that emphasized separating the question of supernatural origin from spiritual fruits.

Fernández pointed out that Ratzinger said even if modern critical thinking might question some aspects, “this doesn’t detract from the fact that those pilgrimages were fruitful, useful, important for the life of the Christian people.”

On this view, he added, Pope Francis said there was “no magic wand” to determine the authenticity of the phenomena, but “the spiritual pastoral fact cannot be denied.”

Spirituality of the messages

A significant portion of the document is a summary of the central points and spirituality of the numerous alleged messages received by the alleged visionaries, identifying “Queen of Peace” as the “most original title in the alleged messages,” though Mary most frequently refers to herself as “Mother.”

The predominant themes of those communications — which the Vatican stresses should be referred to as “alleged messages” — are calls for conversion, peace, reconciliation, and a return to the sacraments, along with a “constant call to abandon a worldly lifestyle and excessive attachment to worldly goods.” 

“One of the prevailing characteristics of the spirituality that emerges from the messages is that of trust in God through a total trust in Mary, in order to become instruments of peace in the world,” the Vatican’s document says.

The note quotes from some of the messages to illustrate that in the missives, “Our Lady does not place herself at the center but shows herself to be fully directed toward our union with God.”

The spirituality of the messages is also one of communion with the pope and with the whole Church, it said, and the spirituality of Medjugorje is overall “joyful, celebratory, and includes a call to live the joy of following Christ.”

During Thursday’s press conference, Fernández quoted from several of the alleged messages he found to be edifying.

“Most of the messages have a beautiful content that can stimulate the faithful to conversion, to grow in their encounter with Christ, to be peacemakers in the world,” he said.

‘Misleading messages’

The report also notes that as in other spiritual experiences and alleged supernatural phenomena, “positive and edifying elements are mixed with other elements that are to be ignored,” adding: “But this fact should not lead one to spurn the richness and the good of the Medjugorje proposal as a whole.”

The report draws attention to a number of “misleading messages” from Mary, particularly when she reprimands or makes threats, or when she insists strongly on listening to her messages: “This risks creating a dependence and an excessive expectation on the part of the faithful, which could ultimately obscure the central importance of the revealed word.”

The note said this becomes “even more problematic” when the messages give orders about specific dates, places, and practical decisions “unlikely to be of supernatural origin.”

“Although messages of this type are infrequent in Medjugorje, we can find some of them that are explained solely from the personal desires of the alleged visionaries,” the note said. “It is reasonable for the faithful, using prudence and common sense, not to take these details seriously nor heed them.”

The dicastery also said “those messages that attribute to Our Lady the expressions ’my plan’ or ‘my project’ also show a certain problematic aspect,” and these expressions “might create some confusion” because “in reality, everything Mary accomplishes is always at the service of the Lord’s plan and his divine plan of salvation.”

Another term requiring special attention is “the possible misuse of the word ‘mediatrix’ in reference to Mary” in the messages.

When the messages say “I am the mediatrix between you and God” (July 17, 1986) and “I desire to be the link between you and the Heavenly Father, your mediatrix” (March 18 2012), they “fail to express adequately the fact that, as St. John Paul II explained, Mary’s mediatory cooperation is ‘subordinate’ to the mediation of Christ,” the note explained. 

The DDF said Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, special apostolic visitor to the parish community of Medjugorje, will continue the duties already entrusted to him and will be responsible for authorizing the publication of any future messages.

The dicastery advised people who may visit Medjugorje that pilgrimages should not be made to meet with alleged visionaries but to have an encounter with Mary, Queen of Peace and with her son, Jesus Christ, through participation in the sacraments.

Some of the alleged messages of Mary the Vatican found problematic were those containing explicit and repeated exhortations to the parishioners of the local church, St. James, the Vatican said.

Those messages are “an understandable expression of the alleged visionaries’ intense love for their parish community,” the note said. “However, Our Lady’s messages cannot replace the ordinary role of the parish priest, the pastoral council, and the synodal work of the community regarding decisions that are the subject of communal discernment, through which the parish matures in prudence, fraternal listening, respect for others, and dialogue.”

‘Nihil obstat’

In accordance with new norms on the discernment of “alleged supernatural phenomena,” the local bishop must consult and receive final approval from the Vatican after investigating and judging alleged apparitions and connected devotions.

According to the May 17 norms, a “nihil obstat” judgment means: “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”

In its Sept. 19 note, the DDF explained that “through the ‘nihil obstat’ about a spiritual event, the faithful ‘are authorized to give it their adherence in a prudent manner’ (Norms, art. 22, §1; cf. Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, par. 14).”

“While this does not imply a declaration of the supernatural character of the phenomenon in question (cf. Norms, art. 22, §2) — and recalling that the faithful are not obliged to believe in it — the nihil obstat indicates that the faithful can receive a positive encouragement for their Christian life through this spiritual proposal, and it authorizes public acts of devotion,” the dicastery continued.

“Such a determination is possible,” it said, “insofar as many positive fruits have been noted in the midst of a spiritual experience, while negative and dangerous effects have not spread among the people of God.”