The Vatican will announce its opinion on the Medjugorje case on Thursday, September 19. In fact, there will be a press conference on the spiritual experience of Medjugorje with a speech by the former Prefect of the Holy Office, Card. Victor Manuel Fernandez. The cardinal recently explained that with the new rules also approved by the Dicastery on the Medjugorje case, it will be “easier to move forward and reach a wise conclusion.”

Apparitions in Medjugorje

A commission led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini worked on the case of the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje in 2010 under Ratzinger’s papacy, concluding that the first nine apparitions should be considered authentic, while leaving all others in limbo. “The visionaries were one of the points of concern,” predicted Fernandez, who last May presented the new rules the pope wants with a crackdown on alleged Marian apparitions.

The Pope had the opportunity to speak about Medjugorje on the return trip from Fatima. On that occasion he highlighted “some doubts in the Vatican Council” which led to the sending of the entire documentation on the “case” to the members of the Council, including opinions dissenting from Ruini’s text. “On the first apparitions, when the ‘seers’ were young – as Francis reported – the report more or less says that we must continue investigating. As for the alleged current apparitions, the report has its doubts. I personally am more ‘bad’: I prefer the Mother of the Madonna, our Mother, and not the Madonna who is the head of the telegraph office and who sends a message every day at such and such an hour… This is not the Mother of Jesus and these alleged apparitions have no great value.”