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May 11th, 2011
Our housekeeper wants to go to Medjugorje. She says she is in the mood for miracles and has already chosen the tour – one of the many led by Paolo Brosio, an Italian journalist who attributes his conversion from a dissolute existence to the Marian apparitions that have been occurring at this village in Bosnia-Herzegovina for thirty years. (Brosio recently showed a Medjugorje crucifix on TV inexplicably dripping a waxy substance.) Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo is the visionary who reports her monthly apparitions. All have to do with repentance and conversion but, notwithstanding their worldwide popularity, they remain a “personal revelation,” Vatican code for “not yet church-approved.” What cannot be denied is the powerful emotions pilgrims experience. Today I receive an email from a Hong Kong businessman who is seeking baptism. So far, former marriages have prevented this, but he is undeterred and tells me has just returned from a visit to Medjugorje’s Apparation Hill filled with speechless wonder.