“The note is excellent news, it can “purify” Medjugorje, helping the faithful to approach the experience with greater awareness”. Sister Palmarita Guida is the founder of the Tiberiade Vincentian Fraternity and at the Oasis Santa Maria degli Angeli in Massafra, in the province of Taranto, she promotes occasions of prayer and spirituality. We ask her, who has also been to Medjugorje several times, for a comment on the document The Queen of Peace just released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which concerns the small town in Bosnia and Herzegovina where alleged apparitions of the Madonna have been witnessed for more than 40 years.
Sister Guida, why is the pronouncement of the Dicastery, approved by the Pope, so important?
«Medjugorje attracts thousands and thousands of people from all over the world every year, the note is important because it shows the Church’s attention to the people of God, including those who live a more popular religiosity, anchoring the experience to the evangelical context».
In what sense – do you say – can the note “purify” Medjugorje?
“The head rests on the fruits of Medjugorje, not on the truthfulness of the apparitions. It shifts the center of gravity to the positive experience it represents for the faithful, even neglecting to mention the supernatural manifestations such as the diffusion of the smell of lavender, which many speak of, or the rotation of the sun. As for the messages, it specifies that “the positive evaluation of the majority of the messages does not imply declaring that they have a direct supernatural origin”. As if to say that the “heart” of the spiritual experience is not there”.
In your opinion, what are the most relevant aspects of the document?
“First of all, recognizing the goodness and spirit of the experience, in accordance with the Gospel, which leads to conversions in faith, to reconciliations within the family, rediscovering the profound motivations of being Christian. I repeat, this is the heart of the Medjugorje experience: the Gospel comes first and then it is the Spirit responsible for conversions and healings.”
The document reads: «Pilgrimages are not made to meet with the alleged visionaries, but to have an encounter with Mary, Queen of Peace, and with Christ“, does it surprise you?
“No, certainly not. We have always given a lot of weight to the visionaries, as if they already had a halo, but only God knows the sanctity of the visionaries. The note says that they are people like us, with their limits, also conditioned by the historical and cultural context. The messages must therefore be purified from mindset of the seer, are only instruments for inner conversion.”
With what spirit do you now recommend approaching Medjugorje?
“In the wake of the note, I would say that one goes to Medjugorje to pray, to gather in God and to rediscover oneself at the sources of the Gospel, not to meet the visionaries, see them in ecstasy or witness particular phenomena. Medjugorje is a place of conversion, in which Mary acts as an intermediary between the faithful and God and the parish of San Giacomo – which, let us remember, is not a sanctuary – offers pastoral opportunities. The faithful must be helped by the pastors to reread the note, so as to approach the experience in a conscious way. For pastoral experiences and for the comparison with other faithful, Medjugorje can change your life.”