Sights in Mostar - Croatia and Slovenia - page 695

In the three-plus decades since, six different locals (including the two original
seers) claim to have seen the vision, and some of them even say they see it regularly
to this day. They also say that Mary has given them 10 secrets—predictions of future
events that will portend Judgment Day. Written on a piece of parchment, these are
kept safely at the home of one of the seers. They have said they will reveal each of
thesesecrets,10daysbeforetheeventoccurs,tothelocalparishpriest,whowillthen
alert the world.
But official representatives of the Vatican are not among the believers. According
to Catholic law, such visions must be “certified” by the local bishop—and the one
around here didn't buy it. One cause for suspicion is that the six seers, before wit-
nessing the visions, were sometimes known to be troublemakers. (In fact, they later
admitted that they went up the hill that fateful night not to chase wayward sheep, but
to sneak a smoke.) One investigator even suggested that they invented the story as a
prank, only to watch it snowball out of control once they told it to the local priest.
Afterdecadesofreluctance,inmid-2010theVaticanformedacommissiontodeterm-
ine whether to officially endorse this “miracle.” (For now, priests are allowed to ac-
company pilgrimages to Me đ ugorje, but not to lead them.)
Whetherornotthestoryistrueis,toacertainextent,besidethepoint—thatpeople
believe it's true is why they come here.
Orientation to M e đ ugorje
Me đ ugorje (MEDGE-oo-gor-yeh, sometimes spelled “Medjugorje” in English) is basically
aone-streettown—mosteverythinghappensinthehalf-milebetweenthepostoffice(where
the bus stop is) and the main church, St. James (Crkva Sv. Jakova). On the hills behind the
churcharetwotrails leading topilgrimage sites.Manytravel agencies linethemainstrip;at
anyofthese,youcanfindaroom,rentacar,hirealocalguide,buyferrytickets forCroatia,
and use the Internet.
By the way, Me đ ugorje is clearly a “Croat” sight. While this may seem odd (after all,
you're in Bosnia-Herzegovina, not Croatia), remember that any Catholic from the former
Yugoslavia is called a Croat. Virtually every local person you'll meet in Me đ ugorje is,
strictly speaking, a Bosnian Croat.