On 24th 1981, in the small village of Medjugorje, Bosnia and Hercegovina, 6 children reported having daily apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary introducing herself as “The Queen of Peace” with an urgent message for conversion and peace and that she has “come to call the world to conversion for the last time ” declaring these are her final apparitions in this way on earth.
Since day one the children were met by disbelief, persecution, arrests by the then-communist regime, visionaries declared enemy of state by the Communists, and even disbelief from the Church. But every hurdle these young children overcame, Our Lady promised this will all pass and the Church will come to confirm what is born of God.
Both the parish priest and bishop were visited by the communists, and later Wikileaks would reveal a KGB operation to shut down the apparitions called “OPERATION CRNCA” The parish priest, skeptical of the visionaries found himself stunned with Our Lady speaking to him to “protect the Children” and did exactly so, finding himself arrested and sentenced for 3 years imprisonment by the communist police. The local bishop who publically said there is no way the visionaries were lying, changed his stance and did his best to stop the apparitions. The secret communist visits to the priest and bishop were detailed and controversially the Bishop was found to have involvement with the KGB operation to shut Medjugorje phenomenon down. Visionary Mirjana Soldo was declared enemy of state, the visionaries parents lost their jobs, were regularly arrested and threatened with much worse.
Pope Benedict XVI ordered, for the first time in 2000 year Church History, a Vatican Commission to study the Medjugorje Phenomena, and removed the local bishop from jurisdiction and had the commission examine the reports of the involvement. Consequently, the commission concluded communist pressure from the KGB on the bishop resulted at mistreated and often harsh behaviour against the visionaries, and that they recommend the Pope quietly removes his authority, establish a new bishop and also a Papal envoy that can manage Medjugorje directly. Pope Francis succeeded and did exactly this, Medjugorje is now the only Parish in the world outside of the Vatican that falls directly under the Pope!
Over 40 years on, The apparitions still continue and have outlived communism, seeing many of the communists themselves converted and apologizing to the visionaries, has become the most scientifically studied supernatural phenomena in the history of mankind, with medical doctors, scientisits and psychologists confirming the visionaries experience as authentic and Medjugorje has now reached papal recognition with annual letters to be read out by the Pope, and a Papal envoy resides there and reports to the pope once a month.
Medjugorje has arguably has caused more conversions to the Catholic Faith in the history of mankind, with fruits of conversions unheard in this scale of since the apparitions of Guadalupe.