MARY, OUR MOTHER

Apostolic Preacher to Help Priests at Problem Pilgrim Centre

One of the Papal Household's private preachers is to visit the troubled pilgrimage site at Medjugorje to conduct a retreat for priests in July this year. The Vatican has been supportive of some aspects of life among the pilgrims. This is a very open endorsement of the importance both of the pilgrim centre, and of getting proper pastoral support for the pilgrims.

Camberley, Surrey, England (PRWEB) April 23, 2007 -- The Pope's own private preacher at the Vatican, Raniero Cantalamessa, will be conducting a retreat for priests in July this year at the heart of Catholicism's most controversial pilgrimage centre -- Medjugorje in the south of the Muslim-Croat Federation of the FYR of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Fr. Cantalamessa has been the "Apostolic Preacher" since 1980, officially known as the Preacher to the Papal Household, giving a meditation each Friday in Advent and Lent in the presence of the Holy Father, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the prelates and the General Superiors of religious orders.

The reasons for this choice may be several:
-to calm speculation about the truth of the happenings in Medjugorje and their probity;
-to ensure that pilgrims who go there are properly catered for ministerially -- most pilgrims want to make a confession there, often for the first time for many years and great care is needed over this;
-to make certain that the rules laid down by the local Bishop Ratko Peric are kept -- Monsignor Peric doesn't believe anything supernatural is happening and is striving to keep reaction to events there healthy and spiritually well-ordered;
-maybe perhaps to look at the Muslim-Christian, and the Catholic-Orthodox splits and work out with the clergy who attend a modus operandi which is positive and peaceful.

Whatever the motive, whichever of the speculations about the reasons for sending the Apostolic Preacher on this mission, it is a bold step, one which should help regularise the curious situation at Medjugorje. By some accounts this venue for pilgrims attracts more visitors than any other Catholic shrine in the world, yet it is not officially recognised. Pilgrims are allowed to go there, but not officially.

The attraction of Medjugorje is the series of reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary which have taken place more or less daily since the summer of 1981. In addition most of those returning for a second time state that they come to "learn to pray". The message coming out of Medjugorje is one which the Vatican can hardly avoid applauding: the promotion of Peace, of Prayer, of the practice of humble Penance, of regular, properly managed, Fasting and the development of a Firm Faith.

For priests attending, the chance to get feedback and help on these matters from someone so close to His Holiness, Pope Benedict, and away from carping critics must surely be the chance of a lifetime. For their Bishops, and those bishops and archbishops who make pilgrimage to Medjugorje, it should bring some peace of mind that the Vatican seems to have taken an interest in helping everybody concerned with Medjugorje in such an open manner.

recognised centre for personal devotional development.

For further information contact www.medjugorje.org, or www.medjugorje.hr.

CONTACT INFORMATION

The Reverend Doctor Edward Baty, IMM,
Camberley Medjugorje Centre,
(UK + 44) (0)1276 20315