Medjugorje is celebrating the 37th anniversary since the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary which first took place on June 24, 1981, when six youths Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Ivan Ivankovic and Milka Pavlovic reported of the apparition.

As apparition reports continued, Medjugorje became one of the most important Marian pilgrimage destinations in the world making this small town in Herzegovina (southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina) one of the biggest tourist destinations in the country with over one million pilgrims annually.  

Last year, Pope's special envoy for Medjugorje, Archbishop of Warsaw and Prague Henryk Hoser said that the Holy Father will most likely acknowledge the first apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje.

“Everything points to the possibility that the apparitions will be recognized. Let us not forget that the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has handed over the entire documentation to the State Secretariat of the Holy See, which is now working on it,” said Archbishop Hoser, whom the Pope Francis appointed his special envoy for pastoral care in Medjugorje.

He then clarified that “only the first seven apparitions could be recognized, as suggested by the investigative commission headed by Cardinal Carmillo Ruini.”  

Last month, Pope Francis named Hoser, now a retired Warsaw and Prague bishop, an apostolic visitor with a special role for the parish of Medjugorje, for an unspecified time and an ‘ad adumum Sanctae Sedis’ (available to the Holy See).

The purpose of the mission of the apostolic visitor is to ensure the firm and permanent escort of the parish community in Medjugorje and of the pilgrims who come there on pilgrimage, whose needs require special attention, said the Holy See.

As explained, this is purely a pastoral service that continues on the mission of the Special Envoy of the Holy See for the Medjugorje parish, which was entrusted to Hoser in February last year, which he completed in the April 2018.