There are good reasons to be confident about the supernaturality of Medjugorje. Most outstanding of these are the beliefs of at least three saints in the apparitions. These saints include Padre Pio, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Pope John Paul II.
In 1994, Don Pablo Martin, parish priest of a district in Italy, prayed to Padre Pio (who died 1968) to help him decide on whether he should buy a16-inch statue of the Blessed Mother in Medjugorje. Don Pablo said Padre Pio, whether in apparition, locution or dream he did not say, encouraged him to do the purchase. Back home in the Italian parish, the statue came to be regarded as miraculous. It was observed to have wept blood 14 times.
The same statue was asked to be brought to the Vatican in 1995 for veneration by then Pope John Paul II, who had asked for a special crown which he laid on the Virgin’s head.
In his earthly lifetime, Padre Pio once also told visitors from Mostar, a diocese that also covers Medjugorje, that “the Blessed Virgin Mary will soon be visiting your homeland.” Years later in 1981, the Marian apparitions started in Medjugorje.
Faith in the Medjugorje apparitions was also expressed by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The Mir Monthly magazine which had interviewed her quoted her as having said: “ I am grateful to our Lady of Medjugorje. I know many people go there and are converted. I thank God for leading us during these times this (Medjugorje) way.”
Mother Teresa had deep faith in the Blessed Mother. Arriving in war-torn Lebanon, she was warned not to venture through the streets of Beirut in her mission to help the victims of war. But she told those who had warned her not to worry as she had prayed to the Blessed Mother and that there was no danger for her and the people she would attend to.
The following day, she was up and about crossing the streets of devastated Beirut to tend to the needs of isolated war victims. For the first time in weeks, not a single gunfire was heard throughout the city.
Talking about sound, even atheists have been converted by the silence in Medjugorje. Such was the case of an atheist neuro-scientist who had studied the visionaries of Medjugorje and found them normal. But what finally got him converted were the usually noisy birds in Medjugorje which, when the Blessed Mother started appearing to any or all of the six visionaries, fell totally silent, only to resume their chirping at the exact second of the end of each apparition. This, on top of his conclusion that the visionaries were not only normal people, but were also perceiving a three-dimensional object during apparitions.
And so we listen to the continuing messages from Medjugorje.
