date: 19.09.2025.
On Sunday, September 21, at 8 p.m., the presentation of the book “The Queen of Peace”: Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje (Text of the Note and interventions at the Press Conference on September 19, 2024, on the occasion of the determination of Nihil Obstat for Medjugorje) will be held in the John Paul II Hall.
The Apostolic Visitor with a special role for the parish of Medjugorje, Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, the parish priest of Medjugorje, Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić, and Sr. Valerija Kovač, the editor of this book will speak about the Note. Sr. Valerija Kovač also wrote an afterword in which she said that “we were eagerly awaiting the press conference of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced on September 19, 2024, with the presentation of ‘The Queen of Peace’: Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje” and that “a beautiful gesture by the Prefect of the same Dicastery, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who at the beginning of his presentation in Croatian greeted the bishops, the Apostolic Visitor and the faithful in the Croatian-speaking area, hinted that he would announce good news, that is, a positive assessment of the Medjugorje phenomenon.”
“The Note itself ‘The Queen of Peace’ begins very solemnly: ‘The time has come to conclude a long and complex history that has surrounded the spiritual phenomena of Medjugorje. It is a history in which bishops, theologians, commissions, and analysts have expressed a series of divergent opinions.’ After so many years, the time had come to give the faithful an authoritative, theological and spiritually-based direction on how to relate to Medjugorje, and it complements all previous positive decisions regarding Medjugorje made by Pope Francis in recent years”, wrote Sr. Valerija Kovač in the book's afterword, emphasizing that “a small, ordinary village in Herzegovina, where the unusual and extraordinary experiences of six children began in 1981, has survived 43 years of various changes that have occurred both on the local and universal levels of the Church and the world.”
“Moreover, it has become a phenomenon of global proportions, as tens of millions of people so far have made pilgrimages to Medjugorje. It was no longer possible to ignore these facts – its continued existence and its spread throughout the world, as well as the visibility of its spiritual fruits, which are not necessarily connected with the alleged apparitions themselves. Medjugorje has not remained just a parish in the usual structure of the Catholic Church, but has transformed into a spiritual oasis for people from all over the world who, by making pilgrimage there, want to find landmarks for their lives and discover the perhaps forgotten message of the Christian faith. Against the backdrop of the forgetfulness of God that characterizes today's world, Medjugorje is experienced as a sacred space that awakens a longing for God and in which many spiritual changes occur in those who are inspired by it.“
“This is perhaps the greatest oddity of the Medjugorje phenomenon: that it is a completely ordinary Catholic liturgy and devotion, and that seemingly very ordinary fruits of God's grace occur in it, which are not reserved only for extraordinary spiritual ecstasies, but are intended for the everyday life of faith. This wealth of spiritual fruits, which occur ‘in the midst’ of the Medjugorje phenomenon, is one of the reasons for the most positive assessment of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, because, as Cardinal Fernández pointed out, negative fruits have been very minimal throughout the world. With this emphasis, the Note ‘The Queen of Peace’ is in accordance with the current Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena, which shift the focus from the question of the supernatural to the spiritual and pastoral effects of an alleged supernatural event”, says Sr. Valerija Kovač, emphasizing that “The Note ‘The Queen of Peace’ marks a decisive turning point in the history and discernment of Medjugorje, presenting the site as a place of prayer and spiritual edification for all who seek refuge in the Mother of God, the Queen of Peace.”
„At the same time, it opens horizons for the Medjugorje phenomenon to continue to be monitored, studied, and judged. Scientific research and theological evaluations will continue to be needed. But more than that, there will still be a need for openness to God's grace and spiritual fruits in people who will be inspired by the inspirations of Medjugorje. Only in such a way will the extraordinary reality of Medjugorje and its messages be kept alive and effective for today's world”, concludes Sr. Valerija Kovač, editor of the book “The Queen of Peace“: Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje (Text of the Note and Interventions at the Press Conference on September 19, 2024, on the occasion of the determination of Nihil Obstat for Medjugorje) in her afterword.
The presentation program will be translated into the following languages: ITALIAN FM 99.7 and ENGLISH FM 94.3
We kindly ask all pilgrims to bring their own devices to listen to the translation of the program.
