Mary in Private Revelation

The Reported Message of Medjugorje

Of the various contemporary reported Marian apparitions, none has received more international response from the faithful throughout the world than those coming from a small Bosnian mountain town known as "Medjugorje," which means, "between the hills" (33).

In June, 1981, six Croatian youths reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin under the title, "Queen of Peace." An estimated twenty million people have since pilgrimaged to Medjugorje, inclusive of significant numbers of bishops, priests and religious from the five continents.

What is the present Church status of the Medjugorje apparitions? On April 10, 1991, the Bishops’ Conference of the former Yugoslavia issued a declaration entitled, "Declaration of the Ex-Yugoslavia Bishops’ Conference on Medjugorje." While the declaration is inconclusive, stating that at this point in the investigation "it cannot be affirmed that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations," it then goes on to state that "the faithful journeying to Medjugorje, prompted both by motives of belief and other motives, require attention and pastoral care" by the Bishop of Mostar and his brother bishops while the investigation continues.

This declaration makes clear that the Medjugorje apparitions are at present neither formally approved (constat de supernaturalitate) nor formally condemned (constat de non supernaturalitate), but represent the middle category of Church evaluation referred to as non constat de supernaturalitate, which allows for both continued personal belief in the apparitions and personal (non-diocesan sponsored) pilgrimages to Medjugorje while the investigation is ongoing.

The legitimacy of personal belief in the Medjugorje apparitions and personal pilgrimages to the apparition site at the present time has been confirmed by the Holy See in a 1998 statement by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which verified the 1991 former Yugoslav bishops’ Zadar statement as the present position of the Holy See; specifies the unofficial opposition of the local bishop which runs counter to the 1991 Zadar position as simply his own personal position; and confirms the legitimacy of private pilgrimages to the Medjugorje site (34).

The basic message from the "Queen of Peace" can be summarized under five main themes: Faith, Prayer, Fasting, Conversion, and Peace.

The Medjugorje call of faith is a Marian call for a more committed faith in the one God and in Jesus Christ as the one Mediator to the Father. The call to prayer constitutes a greater generosity in terms of both quality and quantity of prayer, summarized in the often used request for "prayer of the heart." Apart from the invitation to daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, the Blessed Virgin has asked for the daily praying of the fifteen decade Rosary, the frequent reading of Scripture and a personal consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Several of the monthly messages (given on the 25th of each month) echo the simple but persevering refrain: "Pray! Pray! Pray!"

The Medjugorje call for fasting began with a call to fast on Fridays, and in August 1984, the Blessed Virgin requested that Wednesdays also be added as a day of strict fasting. This Wednesday and Friday fasting practice reflects the same practice present in the first centuries of the Church, as recorded in the Didache (c. 60-120 A.D.): "Do not fast like the hypocrites on Monday and Thursday; you (Christians) are to fast on Wednesday and Friday" (35). Rather than requesting a new fasting practice, it appears that the Blessed Virgin seeks to return the faithful to the more committed fasting practice of the early Church.

The conversion theme is a call of greater conversion to Jesus Christ, specifically through the reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation at least on a monthly basis. The theme of peace calls for the spiritual peace of Christ in the heart of each believer as the fruit of greater prayer, greater faith, greater fasting, and greater conversion. This interior spiritual peace of Christ in the heart should then blossom to family peace, then social peace, with the eventual goal of world peace. However, a global peace is possible only if it is founded upon the spiritual and interior peace of Jesus Christ in the hearts of humanity (36).

The Lady of All Nations Apparitions

A recent series of apparitions that have received the positive constat de supernaturalitate declaration from its local bishop are the apparitions of the "Lady of All Nations" in Amsterdam, Holland. Between 1945 and 1959 the visionary, Ida Peerdeman, received numerous apparitions and messages from the Mother of Jesus which called for a new unity between nations, warned of upcoming dangers of moral "degeneration, disaster, and war," and prophesied such events as the Second Vatican Council, conflicts in the Holy Land and the Balkans, and forms of terrorism and chemical warfare (37).

Our Lady revealed to the visionary the following prayer to be prayed by all people for a new descent of the Holy Spirit upon all nations (in a way similar to the prayer of Bl. Pope John XXIII for a "new Pentecost" at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council):

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father,
send now Your Spirit over the earth.
Let the Holy Spirit live
in the hearts of all nations,
that they may be preserved
from degeneration, disaster, and war.
May the Lady of All Nations,
the Blessed Virgin Mary,
be our Advocate.
Amen.

This prayer was also given to prepare the Church and the world for the proclamation of a new Marian dogma, the "dogma of the Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate" (38). This would constitute the dogmatic definition of the existing Church doctrine of Mary as the Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces and Advocate by the Roman Pontiff. Concerning this Marian dogma, the Lady of All Nations revealed that, "I know the struggle will be bitter, but the outcome is already assured" (39), and that the proclamation of this fifth Marian dogma would bring peace to the world in an echo of the Fatima promise for peace:

Once the dogma, the final dogma in Marian history, has been proclaimed, the Lady of All Nations will grant peace, true peace to the world (40).

On May 31, 2002, Bishop Joseph Punt of Amsterdam issued the following official declaration which concludes to the supernatural origin of the fundamental Amsterdam apparitions and message:

I have come to the conclusion that the apparitions of the Lady of All Nations in Amsterdam consist of a supernatural origin (41).

In sum, we can say that the many appearances of the Mother of Jesus to humanity in this Age of Mary have been nothing short of an inestimable gift to the Church and has most likely led to the salvation and sanctification of many.

We conclude with the words of the theologian, Fr. Garrigou-LaGrange, who, as far back as the 1930’s, spoke strongly of the need for responding to the contemporary Marian message to the modern world:

Exterior peace will not be obtained for the world except by the interior peace of souls, bringing them back to God and working to establish the reign of Christ in the depths of their intellects, of their hearts, and of their wills. For this return of straying souls to Him Who alone can save them, it is necessary to have recourse to the intercession of Mary, Universal Mediatrix and Mother of all men. It is said of sinners who seem forever lost that they must be confided to Mary: it is the same for Christian peoples who stray. All the influence of the Blessed Virgin has as its end to lead them to her Son....

That is why on all sides many interior souls, before the unprecedented disorders and tragic sufferings of the hour, feel the need for recourse to the redeeming love of Christ through the intercession of Mary Mediatrix (42).

This article was excerpted from Introduction to Mary: The Heart of Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Queenship, Third Edition, June 2006, and is available from Queenship Publishing at 1-800-647-9882, www.queenship.org., or P.O. Box 220, Goleta, California, 93116, U.S.A.

(1) Pope John XXIII, closing statement of 1959 Marian year, February 18, 1959, emphasis added.

(2) Cf. Bonano, C.M.F., "Marian Shrines and Apparitions" Mariology, III, p. 334.

(3) Cf. Didache, 15:1.

(4) Hermas, The Shepherd, 11:7.

(5) Cf. Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude the Great.

(6) Cf. St. Bridget, Revelationes.

(7) Cf. Timothy O’Donnell, Heart of the Redeemer, Ignatius, 1992, p. 125ff.

(8) St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 174, art. 6, ad 3.

(9) Cf. St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Camel, Bk. II; Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, London, Sheed and Ward, 1980, p. 425ff; G.M. Roschini, O.S.M., The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta, Quebec, Kolbe Publications, 1989, p. 10, footnote 9.

(10) For discussion of Church criteria for private revelation, cf. Frederick M. Jelly, O.P., "Discerning the Miraculous: Norms for Judging Apparitions and Private Revelations," Marian Studies, 44, 1993.

(11) Cf. Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, pp. 429-430.

(12) For example, cf. Laurentin and Henri Joyeux, Scientific and Medical Studies in the Apparitions at Medjugorje, Dublin, Veritas Press, 1987.

(13) Pope Benedict XIV, De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, v. 1-7 of Opera Omnia, 17 v. in 20; 2:32; 3:53.

(14) Cf. Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, p. 429.

(15) Cf. Laurentin, The Life of Catherine Labouré, London, 1983; Laurentin, Catherine Labouré et la Médaille Miraculeuse, Paris, 1976; Laurentin, Bernard Billet, O.S.B., Lourdes, Documents authentiques, 7 Vols., Lethielleux, Paris, 1957-1966; J. Dirbin, C.M., St. Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal, Tan, 1958.

(16) Ibid.

(17) Cf. "Miraculous Medal," New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1978, Vol. 13.

(18) J. Dirbin, C.M., St. Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal, Tan, 1958, p. 178; cf. Laurentin, Catherine Labouré et la Médaille Miraculeuse, Paris, 1976.

(19) This quote and all quotes of Bernadette Soubirous and accounts of Lourdes taken from J.B. Estrade, J.H. Girolestone, tr., The Appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Grotto of Lourdes, Westminster, Art and Book Co., Ltd., 1912; cf. also Alan Heame, The Happenings at Lourdes.

(20) Ibid.

(21) Cf. 67th Lourdes Miracle Officially Proclaimed, Zenit, November 15, 2005.

(22) Estrade, The Appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary; cf. also Alan Heame, The Happenings at Lourdes.

(23) Ibid.

(24) Cf. St. Maximilian Kolbe, letter from Nagasaki to the youth of the Franciscan Order, February 28, 1933; Manteau-Bonamy, O.P., Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, p. 7.

(25) Sr. Lucia, Memoirs, Fourth Memoir.

(26) Ibid.

(27) Ibid.

(28) For example the October 15, 1917 edition of the Lisbon newspaper, O Seculo, ran such headlines as: "The Miracle of Fatima" as well as: "Amazing Phenomenon!" and "How the Sun Danced at Noon over Fatima"; cf. Fr. Robert J. Fox, Fr. Antonio Martins, S.J., Documents on Fatima & the Memoirs of Sister Lucia, Fatima Family Apostolate, 2002, pp. 58-59.

(29) Sr. Lucia, Memoirs, Appendix I.

(30) Ibid.

(31) Special insert, The Message of Fatima, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, June 28, 2000, p. IV.

(32) Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, special insert, The Message of Fatima, "Theological Commentary," L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, June 28, 2000, p. VIII.

(33) The Medjugorje message outlined here is a summary from Miravalle, Introduction to Medjugorje, Queenship, 2004.

(34) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, letter from Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, former Secretary to Cardinal Ratzinger, to Bishop Msgr. Gilbert Aubry, May 26, 1998, Protocol Number 154/81-06419.

(35) Didache 8:1, Glimm, tr., Fathers of the Church, New York: C.I.M.A., 1947, I, p. 177.

(36) For a more basic summary of the Medjugorje message cf. Miravalle, "Medjugorje" entry, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1989, Vol. 18, p. 304; and Miravalle, Introduction to Medjugorje.

(37) Cf. The Lady of All Nations, messages of October 1, 1949, February 11, 1951, May 19, 1953, October 11, 1953, May 31, 1955, in The Messages of the Lady of All Nations, The Lady of All Nations Foundation, 1999.

(38) Ibid., messages of April 29, 1951, December 31, 1951, May 10, 1953.

(39) Ibid., message of April 29, 1951.

(40) Ibid., message of May 31, 1954.

(41) Joseph Maria Punt, letter In Response to Inquiries Concerning the Lady of All Nations Apparitions, May 31, 2002.

(42) Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P., Mother of the Savior and the Interior Life, p. 272.