POPE RAISES DOUBTS OVER MEDJUGORJE APPARITIONS

ABOARD THE PAPAL

PLANE— Pope Francis on Saturday expressed serious doubts regarding reported daily apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje in Bosnia, a site which attracts a million pilgrims annually.

In June 1981, six Bosnian children and teenagers said they had witnessed the appearance of the Virgin Mary in the southern town. They allege she continues to visit to this day.

The woman they saw “was not the mother of Jesus,” the Pope said on Saturday aboard the papal plane on his return from a trip to Portugal, where he canonized two young shepherds who had visions of the Virgin 100 years ago.

The Pope said an investigation under way by the Church had thrown up doubts regarding the Medjugorje apparitions.

He said he preferred “‘the Mother Madonna’ or ‘ our Mother,’ and not the ‘Madonna chief of service,’ for sending daily messages.”

Religious tourism

The remarks are likely to make waves in Bosnia, where Catholics make up about 10 percent of the population and religious tourism at Medjugorje brings money into the poor Balkan country.

“These supposed apparitions don’t have much value—I’m giving my personal opinion,” the Pontiff continued.

“But it is obvious, who thinks the Virgin would say: ‘come to this place tomorrow at this time and I’ll give a message to a seer’?”

However, the Pope was more circumspect about the original 1981 apparitions, which he didn’t immediately reject.

“On the original apparitions, the ones the children had, the enquiry says, more or less, that investigations need to continue,” he said.

Several investigations had already been carried out, the last in January 2014, but the Pope had made no announcement since.

However, in November 2013, he did express some doubts.

“The Virgin,” he said, “is not a chief of the post office who would send messages every day.”