My View of Medjugorje

by Fr Richard Heilman | January 17, 2024 3:21 PM

MY VIEW OF MEDJUGORJE

While Bishop Strickland is on his first pilgrimage to Medjugorje, there is much talk of each person’s opinion on this place. I thought I would share mine …

I began to have my doubts when I went to a parish, back in the 1990s, that hosted Ivan, one of the seers. I was struck with great doubt when, after his talk, he was “now going to have an apparition.” We looked at him staring upward in silence. This didn’t seem right.

However, as the years have passed, I have been even more struck by the incredible reports of conversions of those who visit Medjugorje, and even Fr. Calloway’s one-day total conversion from a drug-filled lifestyle to a call to priesthood, simply by picking up a book on Medjugorje.

Now, many might say “conversions occur always and everywhere,” but this is way beyond different. Besides other apparition sites, there is no explaining this multitude of conversions and vocations. There truly seems to be a supernatural power present at the site of the first apparitions in Medjugorje.

Then, one day, about 7-8 years ago, I had a revelation. I’ve always told the story that my call to the priesthood came profoundly in just one day. I had little to no thought of priesthood any day prior to that day. And, by day’s end, my parents and I were contacting the Vocation Director. I have never looked back with one day of doubt or regret.

That day of my one day call to the priesthood was my 23rd birthday … June 24, 1981. The very day Our Lady began appearing in Medjugorje.

Until 7-8 years ago, I had never connected that dot.

I like to think I may be the first vocation from Medjugorje.

At this point, I remain open to the initial apparitions in Medjugorje, and the power present on and near Apparition Hill but, like B16, I have my doubts (but still remain open) about “apparitions that occur every day for so many years.”

While the Church has not condemned the original apparitions, I remain open.

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