The Official English Translation of Our Lady's August 25, 2010 Message
"Dear children! With great joy, also today, I desire to call you anew: pray, pray, pray. May this time be a time of personal prayer for you. During the day, find a place where you will pray joyfully in a recollected way. I love you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call."
From Vecernji List daily newspaper for Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Medjugorje is again at the center of attention, Church and public as well. Though the visit of Cardinal Shoenborn is private, it did not leave anybody indifferent because he is the member of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. We talked to the Cardinal while he was visiting Medjugorje.
Interviewer: “'We came here to be close to the Lord’s mother,' you said during the Christmas Eve Mass, Your Eminence. These words had a great echo. We would like you to explain them?”
Cardinal: “We cannot deny that pilgrims have been coming over here for the past 20 years, as we cannot deny what they experience in Medjugorje and how close they feel to the Blessed Mother. This is my first visit, but since I’ve been a Bishop since 1991. I have simply noticed the fruits of Medjugorje.”
VISIT TO MEDJUGORJE FROM CARDINAL WHO IS CLOSE ALLY OF POPE CAUSES HUGE STIR AS HE SPEAKS POSITIVELY ABOUT APPARITIONS
Pope Benedict, went the buzz, would finally put a rein on the apparitions, and perhaps even dismiss them.
That was the hope in a band of detractors who for years have spearheaded e-mail campaigns against Medjugorje, led by the bishop.
So there was consternation if not a degree of shock last week when a major cardinal -- Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert von Schönborn of Vienna, better known simply as Cardinal Schönborn -- not only visited Medjugorje, but celebrated Mass at St. James Church with Medjugorje pilgrims, freely moved about the village -- at least once with a seer who accompanied him up the hill of apparitions -- and issued what could only be interpreted as positive statements about the apparitions.
"Who could make these things up?" he asked at one point after his arrival. "Who could invent this thing? Man? No, this is not a human act."
The cardinal also called Medjugorje a "superpower" of God's mercy.
On December 30, 2009, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna and a member of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave a powerful, lengthy talk at St James Church in Medjugorje.
The cardinal’s talk revolved around the theme of God’s mercy, and he did not hesitate to praise Medjugorje.
His first words as he stepped to the podium were “Hvaljen Isus i Marija,” a Croatian phrase that means “Praised be Jesus and Mary.” This is a common greeting among the visionaries and Medjugorje villagers. The cardinal repeated it several times and urged the crowd to repeat it with him.
ROME, NOV. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Bosnian episcopal conference has been in Rome, but not to discuss the controversy surrounding Medjugorje, as some reports have contended.
Instead, Cardinal Vinko Puljic participated last week in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which focused on St. Paul and the "new areopagi."
The cardinal did talk to ZENIT about Medjugorje, affirming that the reports of apparitions there and the consequent popularity of the site for pilgrimages is a matter dealt with by the bishop of Mostar, Ratko Peric, and the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Click HERE to view video. (duration: 98:07) Click HEREto view highlights. (duration: 9:58)
This is a transcript of Cardinal Schönborn’s homily given during the Vigil Mass at Medjugorje celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
• Praised be Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters here in the church and on the squares in front of the church, and in the yellow hall... We are all conscious of the fact that it is a big privilege to not have to celebrate the New Year with champagne. (laughter) Maybe later. (laughter and applause)
But now we are allowed to celebrate the beginning of the New Year with Mary and Joseph and with the child that is lying in the manger and with the shepherds.
These days, we have all come to Medjugorje to be especially close to the Mother of the Lord. To be more exact, we have to say that we have come here because we know that the Mother of the Lord wants to be close to us.
With her, we want to begin the New Year. And the first thing that moves me when I think about the manger and the shepherds is that there were no angels present. Here there is an angel at the nativity set (points), but in the gospel there are no angels there. They were on the hills with the shepherds. An entire host of angels. But Mary and Joseph only heard about it. The shepherds told them. They also didn’t see the Gospa. But there are people here who told about it. And we trust that the Mother of God really is close to us.
A talk (question and answer session) given by Mirjana in the Oasis of Peace on 3rd October 2009
Q: Has Our Lady said anything about other apparitions?
Only about Fatima. She said, "What I have started in Fatima I will finish in Medjugorje. My heart will triumph." I cannot go into details. That's the only apparition she mentioned aside from Medjugorje.
Here is the entire transcript.
Mirjana: We will start our meeting with one Hail Mary. Queen of Peace, Pray for us.
We have gathered so that you may ask whatever you may be interested in. Anything that can help you to understand Medjugorje, and if I know, I will be so glad to respond to you because I desire with my entire heart that you may understand what Our Lady desires from us. The first thing is, she invited you. She needs apostles. That's why feel free to ask anything that can help you.
Q: Yesterday's message was very serious and very sad, can you elaborate a little bit?
Message was very sad and you were lucky because you did not have a chance to see the expression on Our Lady's face so that your heart breaks. Because she is mother, and as she said in one of her messages, she desires to bring all of us as the most beautiful bouquet of flowers to her Son. Once she realises that we do not see, we do not understand that, she is the way she was yesterday. Talking about her message, I have no right to comment on the message because I received it the same way you did. Same like you, I also have to reflect on message in order to understand what it tells me. But I would like to ask you one thing. Yesterday when I talked with some people about message, most people said ‘when shall this world change, when shall the world understand?' but no one said 'when shall I understand, when shall I change myself?' I am only asking from all of you to start from ourselves to see where we make mistake and what we can change. Once we change, it will be easier to change others, not always put the blame on others. We should start with ourselves.
Transcript of the Video The Vatican to officially comment on apparitions of Medjugorje
Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo recently said that the Vatican will officially comment on the supposed apparitions of the Virgin in Medjugorje.
Its a small town of some 5,000 people a few miles from the capital of Bosnia where a supposed apparition of the Virgin was seen by six people in 1981.
Every time a diocese or a considerable amount of Catholics ask, the Vatican opens an investigation on what the Church calls a Mariophany, or a supposed visit by the Virgin to mankind.
Rev. Salvatore Perrella, Vice president, Pontifical Theological Faculty, Marianum (Rome): "When there is news of an apparition, the Holy See asks the bishop of the place where it happens to put together a commission of experts, priests, psychologists and canonists to see if its a real apparition or a lie."
From Vecernji List daily newspaper for Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
quares in front of the church, and in the yellow hall... We are all conscious of the fact that it is a big privilege to not have to celebrate the New Year with champagne. (laughter) Maybe later. (laughter and applause)