The Vatican is providing its long-awaited assessment on one of the more contested aspects of Roman Catholicism in recent years: the reported "apparitions" of the Virgin Mary in an otherwise unremarkable village in southern Bosnia.
Following nearly 15 years of study, the head of the Vatican's doctrine office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, is headlining a news conference Thursday on what the Vatican called "the spiritual experience of Medjugorje."
In 1981, six children and teenagers reported seeing visions of the Madonna on a hill in the village of Medjugorje, located in the wine-making region of southern Bosnia. Some of those original 'seers" have claimed the visions have occurred regularly since then, even daily, and that Mary sends them messages.
As a result, Medjugorje has become a major European pilgrimage destination for Christian believers, attracting millions of people over the years. Last year alone, 1.7 million Eucharistic wafers were distributed during Masses there, according to statistics published on the shrine's website, a rough estimate of the numbers of Catholics who visited.
However, unlike at the more well-known and established Catholic sanctuaries in Fatima, Portugal or Lourdes, France, the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje have never been declared authentic by the Vatican.
