Finbar O’Leary It was the Feast of St John the Baptist on the June 24, 1981, when the young visionaries had their first encounter with Our Lady or Gospa in Croatian. Frightened and bewildered they ran away. Returning the following evening Vicka still only 16 years of age and the eldest of the six carried…

Aleksandra Januszewska and Gabriela Zarzycka A couple of weeks ago, we had a very spontaneous idea to go together on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. Medjugorje is a small village in Bosnia and Hercegovina where the Blessed Virgin Mary has been appearing since 1981. We are sisters – the elder Aleksandra is a busy homeschooling mother…

Carmel Kelly With the boys both married and after my mother’s death in 1994, my husband Bill and I were free agents and enjoyed the following few years having no one to really worry about and going wherever we wanted to. A regular thing with myself and some friends was a biannual visit to Lourdes.…

Ann Corrigan This is our experience of a trip to Medjugorje in a little village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Counting down the days to ApriI 22, 2019, I would join a group parish pilgrimage to Medjugorje. One day out of the blue the husband of my sister Margaret said that he would be on holidays…

On June 24, 1981, Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje to two young woman, Mirjana Dragićević and Ivanka Ivanković. The next day she appeared again to the girls and four other young people. These six visionaries, aged 10 to 16, had no relation to one another. Three of the six still report daily apparitions, while…

Approval Process More than 1,500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century, fewer than 20 cases have received Church approval as worthy of belief. The Vatican’s ‘Norms regarding the manner of proceedings in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations’ were approved by Pope Paul VI in 1978.…

Fr Ruairí Ó Domhnaill There is something about the experience of hearing Confessions in Medjugorje that even the most skeptical of priests has to admit that the unique and sacred quality of this sacramental encounter in this little village in Bosnia Herzegovina is rarely experienced anywhere else. I have often listened to priests returning from…

Even though this year’s Thanksgiving Mass organised by NET Ministries Ireland at the beginning of this month was the official ending of a year of mission for 46 young missionaries, it had the dual purpose of celebrating 15 years of “restoring hope” through their work with Irish young people. This year’s cohort of 46 missionaries…

Conor Culkin. It is shocking that there is now a record number of nearly 4,000 children homeless and the problem is getting worse. One child becomes homeless every four hours in Ireland. Focus Ireland is working every day to support these children and their families while they are homeless to lessen the damage done by…

I met Marlies Bolsias by chance at a conference which had Mary, Mother of God, as its central theme. During a feedback session, Marlies spoke about how Mary had come to her aid during a crisis pregnancy as she prepared for an abortion. Afterwards, in a quiet translation booth, she told me her story. Marlies…