The first apparitions of the Virgin in Medjugorje “seem authentic,” declared Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who chaired an international commission to investigate their veracity.
That was his response when asked about the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, a city in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in a recent interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on the occasion of his 70 years of priesthood.
Receive the main news from ACI Prensa by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channels today:
“The first appearances seem authentic. In reality, it was the Virgin who spoke. I suspend my opinion about the others,” the cardinal responded in the interview published on Sunday.
The first alleged apparitions to six minors occurred at the end of June 1981 in what was then a village in the former Yugoslavia, a communist country that existed until 1992 and in which religious demonstrations were prohibited.
However, the so-called seers—already adults—claimed during the following years that they continued experiencing apparitions and receiving messages from the Virgin.
Given the large influx of pilgrims who travel to Medjugorje every year, in 2010, Benedict XVI created the commission led by Cardinal Ruini, which delivered its report to the Vatican in January 2014.
In September 2024 the Holy See published the document The Queen of Peace in which he approves the spiritual experience linked to Medjugorje and issues a positive judgment on the messages, but makes some clarifications and does not comment on the supernaturality of the events.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Prensa I have been sent to cover Pope Francis’ trips to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synodality Synod in the Vatican in 2023.