article 15

Special to the Japan Times / December 10, 1997

By Richard Humphries

Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina

A pilgrimage, "a journey made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion has both spiritual and physical dimensions for the pilgrims. The former can be intensely personal and remain largely hidden, but the physical journey, especially given the large crowds that major pilgrimage sites attract, has been a fascinating and visible phenomenon since ancient times. The fact that large groups of people, often possessing little in the way of material wealth, would embark upon a journey taking months or even years, commands our respect. These travelers, whether crossing the Alpine passes on the way to Rome, traversing African and Arabian deserts to Mecca, or circumnambulating Mt. Kailash in Tibet, often faced obstacles dangerous in the extreme--a compelling testimony to the motivating power of faith.

Today, such journeys are usually much less hazardous and uncomfortable. Airlines, buses, packaged tours, and modern hotels have done much to ease the pilgrim's burden. Yet, neither the elevated lifestyle many of us now enjoy, nor the presumed skepticism of an ostensibly more rational age have made a significant dent in the power of faith. Indeed, in many parts of the world, faith, buttressed by a wave of religious fervor, seems to have gone on the offensive, regaining lost territory and staking out new claims.

One recent manifestation of the power of faith would have to be the creation and development, since 1981, of a major, though not officially recognized, Catholic pilgrimage site at the small Balkan village of Medjugorje, in western Herzegovina (now in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Since June 24, 1981, when six young people: Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Jakov Colo, and Marija Pavlovic began to experience visions of a person they identified as the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, some twenty million pilgrims, including many thousands of priests, have journeyed to Medjugorje.

The name Medjugorje translates in English as "between the mountains", an apt description of the village's setting. Mountains and hills are a salient feature of western Herzegovina, with a chalky, limestone karst predominant in many areas. The dryness of the summer months gives much of the region at that time of year a forbidding and otherworldly appearance, leading one observer, BBC journalist Misha Gleeny, to remark that "Mars must be more hospitable than western Herzegovina and it is hard to imagine anyone wanting to conquer it".

Nonetheless, there are significant areas given over to pasture, primarily for sheep and goats, and to agriculture, notably for tobacco and grapes, both of which are still cultivated in Medjugorje. The relative importance of agriculture in the Medjugorje area has declined dramatically since 1981, since most people now earn their living off the pilgrimage trade. The village's population has, during the same period, swelled by some 30 percent to roughly 3,500.

Gleeny's doubts notwithstanding, the region has seen its share of invasion and migration. Illyrians, Celts, Romans, Goths, and Byzantines all exercised power at one time. The present Slavic population arrived via migration in the seventh century AD. Various Bosnian, Serb, Croatian, and even Hungarian rulers disputed the territory until 1482, when the Ottoman Turks settled the matter, establishing a severe rule that was to last for four centuries. Although conversions to Islam and migrations of Islamicized Slavs occurred in nearby territories such as Bosnia and the Sandzak, western Herzegovina retained a largely Catholic identity, with religious matters under the control of the Franciscan order. In 1892, fourteen years after the Turks were replaced in Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, the Franciscans founded the parish of Medjugorje and the order remains active there to this day.

Austrian rule was terminated at the end of World War One. Herzegovina, as part of the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina was joined to the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. This state, under communist rule after 1945, remained an effective entity until the late 1980s when opportunistic nationalist politicians began to stir up ethnic discord, particularly in the Serbian and later the Croatian regions of the country.

With the breakup of Yugoslavia, western Herzegovina became caught up in the ensuing ethnic and confessional strife of the 1992~1995 Bosnian War. Medjugorje itself was spared, but areas close by were not so lucky. Just ten kilometers from the village lies Capljina, a town which straddles what was one of the Bosnian conflict's major fault lines, the Neretva River. It was along this river, incidentally a major source of water for Medjugorje, that Serb and Croat forces faced off, starting in March 1992. As my bus passed through Capljina, I noticed the heavy destruction to homes and property on the river's eastern bank, where the possibility of mines and other unexploded ordnance has no doubt impeded recovery efforts.

Moving from the scarred and subdued atmosphere of Capljina to the overwhelmingly religious one of Medjugorje is a jolt. The first thing I noticed was the thousands of pilgrims, many traveling in groups identifiable by the name tags they wore. The atmosphere was that of a huge convention, not the mundane sort typified by occupation, but of a more ecstatic character. Every age group and race could be discerned and most visitors seemed filled with that special enthusiasm of pilgrims who have reached their journey's final stage.

The village is dominated by its large, double-spired cathedral, completed in 1969 and dedicated to St. James. Evening masses are held there, inside, as well as outdoors behind the structure. At the one I attended, I would estimate there were roughly 3,000 worshippers, with some 40 priests officiating. Many of the faithful carried small transistor radios with earplugs, and prior to the service were instructed to tune to specific frequencies in order to hear the service in the language of their choice. Croatian, English, German, Czech, Romanian, Korean, and Italian were among those available.

The town center is compact, consisting essentially of a single road which is lined on one side by restaurants and on the other by a good number of religious souvenir shops interspersed with more restaurants. Many of these buildings have a newly built feel to them. There are already over 7,500 beds available in local guesthouses in and around the village, with more accommodation under construction. The profit motive is certainly visible in Medjugorje, though that is only to be expected, considering its location in the midst of a war-ravaged region offering little else in the way of economic opportunity. Reminders of how precarious this development is are easily seen. French, Spanish, and American soldiers, part of the Stabilization Force (SFOR) entrusted with peacekeeping in Bosnia, are present in the area. I found it ironic one night, while sitting in a restaurant and overhearing a conversation at the next table about trances and achieving inner peace, to be watching a heavily armored SFOR vehicle rumble by a few meters away.

One kilometer from the church, and rising above the town, is Krizevac, or Cross Mountain, about 520 meters high. Bronze reliefs of the stations of the cross for Catholics, symbolic of Christ's path to crucifixion line the steep, rocky path to the summit. I saw several people, elderly included, ascending in their bare feet, and some extremely devout pilgrims have been known to crawl. At the peak is a high reinforced concrete cross, completed in 1934 to commemorate the death of Christ. The view of the surrounding region, from the summit, is superb. Looking downwards and then a kilometer or so to the right of the center of Medjugorje, one sees a lesser hill, just above the tiny hamlet of Bijakovici. This is famous as the Hill of Apparitions, where the alleged visions first occurred.

The story given is that at around 5 P.M. on June 24, 1981, two girls were minding some sheep when suddenly an apparition of a woman with a child appeared before them. Frightened, they ran off to enlist the aid of some nearby friends, two other girls and two boys. All the children went back to the place where the apparition first occurred, and all of them saw the woman again. Over the coming months and years the children continued to receive these visions, which came with messages both private nature and intended for the general public. Now grown up (the eldest is 33), four of the original witnesses (Vicka, Ivan, Jakov, and Marija) are said continue to receive daily visions. A Jesuit seminarian from Belgium recommended that I attend one of the public sessions, given at different times and in different languages, at which Vicka Ivankovic would relay the latest message. He said, "You look at her face and you see such inner happiness that you cannot but help experience something, though of course I did not see any apparitions".

The session was held at a small courtyard in Bijakovici. Vicka spoke, relaying the message in Croatian, for about twenty minutes to a crowd of roughly 100. Another woman, holding a microphone, then translated the words into English. The themes of the alleged message covered included the need for peace, prayer, and fasting. The allegory of a plant--"Just as you have a plant which you do not water, that plant will slowly die if you do not attend to spiritual needs"--was used to reinforce the message. Some members of the audience stood completely transfixed, while others cried, and a few fainted. The event was well photographed and recorded. At the end of the English session, the participants were requested to proceed forward in order to exit, as a Korean group would be entering from the rear of the courtyard, and were also asked to hand any requests they might have for spiritual intervention to one of the assistants. Many people reached out their hands to Vicka, who would hold them for a time and smile.

Priests and nuns do attend these sessions. In fact, over 2,000 priests visited Medjugorje in July 1997 alone, but they do so in their private capacity. The Catholic Church's attitude is ambivalent. There is a strong movement that supports the naming of Medjugorje as an officially recognized pilgrimage which may even be part of an even larger movement, with millennial overtones, campaigning for an upgrading of Mary's role in church dogma. At the same time, there is significant opposition to recognizing Medjugorje, even within Herzegovina. The opposition dates back to Pavao Zanic, the Bishop of Mostar (a war-damaged, divided city on the Neretva) at the time of the first apparitions, and continuing with his successor.

After initially conceding that the apparitions might be authentic, Zanic came down heavily against that possibility, stating that he believed the messages were contrived. The pro-Medjugorje literature suggests that the Bishop's thinking was dominated by disputes with the Franciscan order within his see, since, after he had expelled two members of the order for insubordination, admonitions were received from the Virgin Mary, via the children, interpreted as criticizing that move. Zanic did not feel that such an administrative act would warrant divine intervention and went on to write about Medjugorje, to a 1984 episcopal conference in Italy that, "... the pilgrimages ... do not give any proof of the supernatural origin of the apparitions, as some people would have it, but are attributable to the natural religiosity of the people and to an efficient propaganda made by those Franciscans who belong to the pentecostal-charismatic group."

Higher church authorities have yet to decide. While the pope is understood, at least by proponents, to favor the authenticity of the apparitions, the Catholic Church's official position is one of caution. It has declared the Medjugorje events to be "non constat de supernaturalitate". This Latin phrase is used to mean that an investigation is still ongoing and that at the present time it is not possible to recognize the authenticity of the apparitions, and though that possibility remains open for the future, the process might take some time.

This being so, there remains the fact that large numbers of people are journeying to Medjugorje. The church has had to deal with that reality so that rather than lose control it has declared Medjugorje to be a place of prayer and worship. Thus, pilgrims in their millions go there and return feeling spiritually uplifted or awakened. The message of peace is one they usually carry back with them. However, while this is all for the good, it cannot be denied that Medjugorje is part of a region where the message of war heard more often and more loudly. (RH)


	The Mystery of Medjugorje: Six children, a war, and 20 million pilgrims Special to the Japan Times / December 10, 1997 By Richard Humphries Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina A pilgrimage, "a journey made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion has both spiritual and physical dimensions for the pilgrims. The former can be intensely personal and remain largely hidden, but the physical journey, especially given the large crowds that major pilgrimage sites attract, has been a fascinating and visible phenomenon since ancient times. The fact that large groups of people, often possessing little in the way of material wealth, would embark upon a journey taking months or even years, commands our respect. These travelers, whether crossing the Alpine passes on the way to Rome, traversing African and Arabian deserts to Mecca, or circumnambulating Mt. Kailash in Tibet, often faced obstacles dangerous in the extreme--a compelling testimony to the motivating power of faith. Today, such journeys are usually much less hazardous and uncomfortable. Airlines, buses, packaged tours, and modern hotels have done much to ease the pilgrim's burden. Yet, neither the elevated lifestyle many of us now enjoy, nor the presumed skepticism of an ostensibly more rational age have made a significant dent in the power of faith. Indeed, in many parts of the world, faith, buttressed by a wave of religious fervor, seems to have gone on the offensive, regaining lost territory and staking out new claims. One recent manifestation of the power of faith would have to be the creation and development, since 1981, of a major, though not officially recognized, Catholic pilgrimage site at the small Balkan village of Medjugorje, in western Herzegovina (now in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Since June 24, 1981, when six young people: Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Jakov Colo, and Marija Pavlovic began to experience visions of a person they identified as the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, some twenty million pilgrims, including many thousands of priests, have journeyed to Medjugorje. The name Medjugorje translates in English as "between the mountains", an apt description of the village's setting. Mountains and hills are a salient feature of western Herzegovina, with a chalky, limestone karst predominant in many areas. The dryness of the summer months gives much of the region at that time of year a forbidding and otherworldly appearance, leading one observer, BBC journalist Misha Gleeny, to remark that "Mars must be more hospitable than western Herzegovina and it is hard to imagine anyone wanting to conquer it". Nonetheless, there are significant areas given over to pasture, primarily for sheep and goats, and to agriculture, notably for tobacco and grapes, both of which are still cultivated in Medjugorje. The relative importance of agriculture in the Medjugorje area has declined dramatically since 1981, since most people now earn their living off the pilgrimage trade. The village's population has, during the same period, swelled by some 30 percent to roughly 3,500. Gleeny's doubts notwithstanding, the region has seen its share of invasion and migration. Illyrians, Celts, Romans, Goths, and Byzantines all exercised power at one time. The present Slavic population arrived via migration in the seventh century AD. Various Bosnian, Serb, Croatian, and even Hungarian rulers disputed the territory until 1482, when the Ottoman Turks settled the matter, establishing a severe rule that was to last for four centuries. Although conversions to Islam and migrations of Islamicized Slavs occurred in nearby territories such as Bosnia and the Sandzak, western Herzegovina retained a largely Catholic identity, with religious matters under the control of the Franciscan order. In 1892, fourteen years after the Turks were replaced in Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, the Franciscans founded the parish of Medjugorje and the order remains active there to this day. Austrian rule was terminated at the end of World War One. Herzegovina, as part of the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina was joined to the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. This state, under communist rule after 1945, remained an effective entity until the late 1980s when opportunistic nationalist politicians began to stir up ethnic discord, particularly in the Serbian and later the Croatian regions of the country. With the breakup of Yugoslavia, western Herzegovina became caught up in the ensuing ethnic and confessional strife of the 1992~1995 Bosnian War. Medjugorje itself was spared, but areas close by were not so lucky. Just ten kilometers from the village lies Capljina, a town which straddles what was one of the Bosnian conflict's major fault lines, the Neretva River. It was along this river, incidentally a major source of water for Medjugorje, that Serb and Croat forces faced off, starting in March 1992. As my bus passed through Capljina, I noticed the heavy destruction to homes and property on the river's eastern bank, where the possibility of mines and other unexploded ordnance has no doubt impeded recovery efforts. Moving from the scarred and subdued atmosphere of Capljina to the overwhelmingly religious one of Medjugorje is a jolt. The first thing I noticed was the thousands of pilgrims, many traveling in groups identifiable by the name tags they wore. The atmosphere was that of a huge convention, not the mundane sort typified by occupation, but of a more ecstatic character. Every age group and race could be discerned and most visitors seemed filled with that special enthusiasm of pilgrims who have reached their journey's final stage. The village is dominated by its large, double-spired cathedral, completed in 1969 and dedicated to St. James. Evening masses are held there, inside, as well as outdoors behind the structure. At the one I attended, I would estimate there were roughly 3,000 worshippers, with some 40 priests officiating. Many of the faithful carried small transistor radios with earplugs, and prior to the service were instructed to tune to specific frequencies in order to hear the service in the language of their choice. Croatian, English, German, Czech, Romanian, Korean, and Italian were among those available. The town center is compact, consisting essentially of a single road which is lined on one side by restaurants and on the other by a good number of religious souvenir shops interspersed with more restaurants. Many of these buildings have a newly built feel to them. There are already over 7,500 beds available in local guesthouses in and around the village, with more accommodation under construction. The profit motive is certainly visible in Medjugorje, though that is only to be expected, considering its location in the midst of a war-ravaged region offering little else in the way of economic opportunity. Reminders of how precarious this development is are easily seen. French, Spanish, and American soldiers, part of the Stabilization Force (SFOR) entrusted with peacekeeping in Bosnia, are present in the area. I found it ironic one night, while sitting in a restaurant and overhearing a conversation at the next table about trances and achieving inner peace, to be watching a heavily armored SFOR vehicle rumble by a few meters away. One kilometer from the church, and rising above the town, is Krizevac, or Cross Mountain, about 520 meters high. Bronze reliefs of the stations of the cross for Catholics, symbolic of Christ's path to crucifixion line the steep, rocky path to the summit. I saw several people, elderly included, ascending in their bare feet, and some extremely devout pilgrims have been known to crawl. At the peak is a high reinforced concrete cross, completed in 1934 to commemorate the death of Christ. The view of the surrounding region, from the summit, is superb. Looking downwards and then a kilometer or so to the right of the center of Medjugorje, one sees a lesser hill, just above the tiny hamlet of Bijakovici. This is famous as the Hill of Apparitions, where the alleged visions first occurred. The story given is that at around 5 P.M. on June 24, 1981, two girls were minding some sheep when suddenly an apparition of a woman with a child appeared before them. Frightened, they ran off to enlist the aid of some nearby friends, two other girls and two boys. All the children went back to the place where the apparition first occurred, and all of them saw the woman again. Over the coming months and years the children continued to receive these visions, which came with messages both private nature and intended for the general public. Now grown up (the eldest is 33), four of the original witnesses (Vicka, Ivan, Jakov, and Marija) are said continue to receive daily visions. A Jesuit seminarian from Belgium recommended that I attend one of the public sessions, given at different times and in different languages, at which Vicka Ivankovic would relay the latest message. He said, "You look at her face and you see such inner happiness that you cannot but help experience something, though of course I did not see any apparitions". The session was held at a small courtyard in Bijakovici. Vicka spoke, relaying the message in Croatian, for about twenty minutes to a crowd of roughly 100. Another woman, holding a microphone, then translated the words into English. The themes of the alleged message covered included the need for peace, prayer, and fasting. The allegory of a plant--"Just as you have a plant which you do not water, that plant will slowly die if you do not attend to spiritual needs"--was used to reinforce the message. Some members of the audience stood completely transfixed, while others cried, and a few fainted. The event was well photographed and recorded. At the end of the English session, the participants were requested to proceed forward in order to exit, as a Korean group would be entering from the rear of the courtyard, and were also asked to hand any requests they might have for spiritual intervention to one of the assistants. Many people reached out their hands to Vicka, who would hold them for a time and smile. Priests and nuns do attend these sessions. In fact, over 2,000 priests visited Medjugorje in July 1997 alone, but they do so in their private capacity. The Catholic Church's attitude is ambivalent. There is a strong movement that supports the naming of Medjugorje as an officially recognized pilgrimage which may even be part of an even larger movement, with millennial overtones, campaigning for an upgrading of Mary's role in church dogma. At the same time, there is significant opposition to recognizing Medjugorje, even within Herzegovina. The opposition dates back to Pavao Zanic, the Bishop of Mostar (a war-damaged, divided city on the Neretva) at the time of the first apparitions, and continuing with his successor. After initially conceding that the apparitions might be authentic, Zanic came down heavily against that possibility, stating that he believed the messages were contrived. The pro-Medjugorje literature suggests that the Bishop's thinking was dominated by disputes with the Franciscan order within his see, since, after he had expelled two members of the order for insubordination, admonitions were received from the Virgin Mary, via the children, interpreted as criticizing that move. Zanic did not feel that such an administrative act would warrant divine intervention and went on to write about Medjugorje, to a 1984 episcopal conference in Italy that, "... the pilgrimages ... do not give any proof of the supernatural origin of the apparitions, as some people would have it, but are attributable to the natural religiosity of the people and to an efficient propaganda made by those Franciscans who belong to the pentecostal-charismatic group." Higher church authorities have yet to decide. While the pope is understood, at least by proponents, to favor the authenticity of the apparitions, the Catholic Church's official position is one of caution. It has declared the Medjugorje events to be "non constat de supernaturalitate". This Latin phrase is used to mean that an investigation is still ongoing and that at the present time it is not possible to recognize the authenticity of the apparitions, and though that possibility remains open for the future, the process might take some time. This being so, there remains the fact that large numbers of people are journeying to Medjugorje. The church has had to deal with that reality so that rather than lose control it has declared Medjugorje to be a place of prayer and worship. Thus, pilgrims in their millions go there and return feeling spiritually uplifted or awakened. The message of peace is one they usually carry back with them. However, while this is all for the good, it cannot be denied that Medjugorje is part of a region where the message of war heard more often and more loudly. (RH) ©1997 The Japan Times