Notes

Medjugorje Bosnia Hercegovina



On June 25th 2024 Medjugorje will be celebrating 43 years of apparitions at this once small village. In 1982 I visited Medjugorje one year after the Apparitions began, I was there with my Parents Thomasina and Harry basicily to see what was happening, we met the Visionaries and stayed in a small farm house with a local family. At that time Medjugorje was a poor area. though supported by the Socialist sysem of then Yugoslavia. The locals grew Tobacco the better quality going to Rothmans tobacco the poorer tabacco going to make a Yugoslav brand called Drina. The locals also kept Sheep and chickens as well as a small amount of arable farming as the soil in the area was not the greatest for crop growing.Over the years the number of Pilgrims began to grow, and myself working in the late 80, s early 90,s for Yugoslav Airlines became involved in ground handling that is organising flights and coaches to Medjugorje, Steadily more hotels and guest houses were built, by the early 90s the tobacco and sheep had gone with the locals now only dealing with the Pilgrims.
Then sadly the war came, myself knowing the area helped with Caratis a charity supplying food and medical aid to anyone based from Medjugore, incredibly somehow pilgrims though in small numbers were still coming.
In 1996 a regular Saturday flight from London Gatwick to Split by Croatia Airlines began carrying about 80% of its passengers to medjugorje the rest to the coast, I again was assisting with this operation. A few years later the Pope suddenly said no priests or religous could lead pilgrimages to Medjugorje, this stopped most of the flights and reduced numbers drasticly.
But a number of years ago the current Pope Frances allowed pilrimages to restart resulting now in thousands of people going there again , new hotels being built and more guest houses as well as restaurants and souvenier shops.

The vatican has been thinking about these apparations at Medjugorje, on the 25th of each month the visionaries deliver a message from Our Lady. Pope Frances recently spoke about this and said he was not happy that this was happening and that Our Lady was not a post master deliving letters. this has been happening every month since 1981, and at Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal both officialy recognised by the Vatican as real apparitions only a couple of messages were given to the then visionionaries unlike what is happening in Medjugorje.

A new decree has just been issued by the Vatican that they will now leave to the local Bishop a decision if the apparitions are real and are not false or a trick to make money from Pilgrims. It will be apon the local Bishop to make a council to look at the events that are happening and then make a report to the Vatican. After nearly 43 years this is going to be difficult, Medjugorje Parish is run by the Franciscans who have been in Bosnia Herzegovina for centuries even where accepted by the Ottomans . While The Bishops and Clergy appointed by the Vatican only began to arrive after the Ottomans began to leave so there are a few difficulties to put it mildly between the two branches of the church.
Over the years the different Bishops of Mostar who are supposed to oversee Medjugorje have never been happy with the situation there and a number have said in the past its a false event that is happening there,
To calm the situation Pope Francis has appointed a Cardinel to oversea that no current religous rules or false statements are being said in Medjugorje and the Cardinal is now living nearby keeping an eye on the situation.
But this new Decree by the Vatican will allow the local Bishop of Mostar to begin his own investigations, this will take a while, does he have his own agenda, this could effect the number of pilgrims going there, and of course the income of local people, as well as new Flights into Mostar Airport Coach trips and excursions around the surrounding area, as wel, as the planned bigger airport nearby ( Mostar Airport can only take short take off Aircraft)
It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next few years, Bosnia & Herzegovina a most stunning and beutiful place to visit just cant seem to escape from Politics or History.