Sally Fong is among the thousands upon thousands who say they have received blessings and witnessed dramatic change in others from a pilgrimage to Medjugorge.

Fong, the president of the Medjugorje Centre of Canada, a Catholic non-profit devoted to championing the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje, said her blessings came during her seven pilgrimages. Her first visit to St. James Church in the village enkindled a healing transformation.

The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has officially endorsed the “spiritual fruits” that have been cultivated from devotions in the village of Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but abstained from ascribing “supernatural character” to the purported Marian apparitions.

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Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Msgr. Armando Matteo, respectively prefect and secretary of the doctrinal section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, hailed Medjugorje’s penchant for drawing its visitors into a deeper faith life as the “most evident” positive fruits.

In the Sept. 19 dicastery document The Queen of Peace: Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje, Fernandez and Matteo acknowledged how the Catholic pilgrimage site has manifested numerous conversions, vocations to priestly, religious and married life, family renewals and reconciliations between spouses.

Fong reminisced about her experiences in Medjugorje, an unofficial place of Catholic pilgrimage since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared on Apparition Hill in 1981. That first visit to St. James Church stands out.

“In the Mass, I experienced a complete conversion,” said Fong. “I was still suffering from grief because my husband passed away many years ago and I couldn’t get out of that grief. No one was able to help. In that evening Mass, I experienced such a great love for Mother Mary and I felt joy. I was open to the love of God. The people around me said they saw a different me.”

Four 12-day pilgrimages to Medjugorje were organized by the Medjugorje Centre of Canada, headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ont., in 2024. The final spiritual excursion of the year, guided by Fr. John Gan of Chinese Martyrs Catholic Church in Markham, Ont., concluded on Sept. 20.

During the day, pilgrims have an opportunity to experience Apparition Hill, Krizevac – Cross Mountain, the statue of St. Leopold Mandić, patron saint of Confessions, the tomb of Fr. Slavko Barbarić, the spiritual director for the six children who allegedly experienced visions of the Madonna on June 24, 1981. The spiritual climax for many visitors is beholding the Our Lady of Međugorje — the Queen of Peace — shrine near St. James Church.

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The evening is devoted to Holy Mass, praying the rosary, venerating the Cross, confession and eucharistic adoration. At 6:40 p.m. in the summer and 5:40 p.m. during the winter, pilgrims are asked to remain silent as according to the tradition of Medjugorje, this is when Our Lady appears to one or more visionaries.

Fong said that people would generally assume that pilgrims desire “to see the visionaries or see something very special there.” Based on her observations, many visitors’ “focus is on prayer and confession.”

Pope Francis has endorsed continued investigations into the original appearances of Mary to the six Herzegovinian Croat youngsters Ivan Dragičević, Ivanka Ivanković, Jakov Čolo, Marija Pavlović, Mirjana Dragičević and Vicka Ivanković. However, the pontiff cast doubt on continued daily messages at Medjugorje. 

"I personally am more suspicious, I prefer the Madonna as Mother, our Mother, and not a woman who's the head of an office, who every day sends a message at a certain hour,” said the Pope back in May 2017. “This is not the Mother of Jesus. And these presumed apparitions don't have a lot of value."

Fernández and Matteo’s public note presents and examines some of The Lady of Medjugorje’s messages centred on peace, Christocentrism, the Holy Spirit, evil and sin, prayer, the centrality of the Mass, faithful witness and eternal life, among others.

“The messages overall possess great value and express the constant teachings of the Gospel in different words,” declared Fernandez and Matteo. “However, a few messages stray from these positive and edifying contents and even seem to go so far as to contradict them. As a result, one should be attentive lest these few confused elements overshadow the beauty of the whole.”

The two spotlight that there are times when “Our Lady seems to promote listening to her messages so insistently that sometimes this call stands out more than the content of the messages themselves.” Fernández and Matteo suggest that this “risks creating a dependence and an excessive expectation on the part of the faithful, which could ultimately obscure the central importance of the Revealed Word.”

The Queen of Peace: Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje also delves into some of the apparent self-exaltation in some messages. A couple examples are the May 25, 1993, message, “each one of you is important in my plan of salvation,” and the June 25, 2022, dispatch,  “my children, do not forget that you are important in my plan of salvation for humanity.”

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“These expressions might create some confusion,” wrote Fernández and Matteo. “In reality, everything Mary accomplishes is always at the service of the Lord’s plan and His divine plan of salvation. Mary does not have her own plan for the world and the Church. As a result, these messages can only be interpreted in this sense: that Our Lady fully assumes God’s plans to the point of expressing them as her own.”

Ultimately, the dicastery granted Medjugorje with a nihil obstat (nothing stands in the way) declaration and invited the faithful to “give it their adherence in a prudent manner.” Fernández and Matteo stressed that going to Medjugorje is about encountering Mary and Christ and discerning His will “through meditation on the Word, by participation in the Eucharist and in Eucharistic Adoration.”