Bosnian authorities investigate desecration and fire damage at Medjugorje Virgin Mary shrine
Police said 2 statues were defaced and an outdoor altar was set ablaze as the shrine prepared for a youth festival drawing 50,000 to 60,000 people.
- On Tuesday, authorities in Bosnia investigated the desecration of a Virgin Mary statue and a shrine damaged by fire overnight in Medjugorje, a popular destination for Roman Catholic pilgrims.
- Two years ago, the Vatican gave the green light for Catholics to continue flocking to Medjugorje, offering approval for devotion at one of the most contested sites of Roman Catholic practice.
- Pictures from the site showed the statue of Our Lady had her face and hands painted black, with an inscription in English on the pedestal reading "Devil in a skirt".
- Vandals also displayed a banner on a fence listing the names of seers with a message in Polish asserting: "They are fraudsters, I have proof".
- The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled positive "spiritual fruits" justify pilgrimages, though officials stopped short of declaring the reported apparitions authentic while flagging concerns about message contradictions.
124 Articles
124 Articles
Outrage as sacred shrine vandalised at cherished holy site
A sacred shrine in Bosnia, cherished by Catholic pilgrims around the world and visited by thousands of Irish people every year, has been vandalised in a shocking attack. Medjugorje, one of the world’s most famous Marian pilgrimage sites, was targeted just days before a major youth festival was due to take place in the town. […]
A Pole devastated the sanctuary in the Bosnian pilgrimage site of Medjugorje and set an altar on fire.
Attack on one of the most famous places of pilgrimage to Mary in the world: A perpetrator smeared the statue of Mary on the Podbrdo mountain in Bosnia-Herzegovina with paint, left blasphemous graffiti like "Devil in a skirt" and other reproaches. On the outer altar behind the parish church of St. James (Sveti Jakov) the man deliberately set fire. Surveillance cameras filmed how the perpetrator poured out and lit the recently renovated altar with…
Polish man arrested over Medjugorje vandalism
A Polish man has been identified as the main suspect of a vandalization and desecration of the Medjugorje shrine in Bosnia on July 28.Statute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, vandalized July 28. Credit: Bosnian tourist board.Security camera footage showed a man dousing the altar of Saint James Parish in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje with a flammable liquid and setting it on fire during the early hours of Tuesday morning. The same day, …
Michigan Live
Virgin Mary statue in Bosnia vandalized, set on fire at Catholic pilgrimage site
An unidentified man was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina after allegedly vandalizing a statue at one of the world’s most famous Catholic pilgrimage sites.
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