The Marian shrine of Medjugorje, in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been vandalized by unknown persons who set fire to several facilities, including an outdoor altar, and painted the face and other parts of the central statue of the Virgin Mary black.
According to local media reported this Tuesday, at dawn messages of hate were also found written in the Catholic sanctuary, in Polish, in which, for example, the six people who claimed to see the Virgin in 1981 were branded as impostors.
The news portal Hercegovina.info published a video recording from a surveillance camera that shows a man pouring gasoline on the outside altar of the Church of Santiago, in the sanctuary, and setting it on fire.
The Bosnian authorities have opened an investigation to identify the authors of the desecration and their motivation, says the newspaper Slobodna Bosna after highlighting that this act of vandalism takes place a few days before the annual International Catholic Youth Festival Mladifest, which from August 1 brings together pilgrims from all over the planet in Medjugorje.
The sanctuary of the ‘Queen of Peace’ in the aforementioned Bosnian town receives millions of faithful from all over the world every year.
The Vatican has authorized public worship and organized pilgrimages, as well as their “positive spiritual fruits,” but has so far not confirmed the authenticity of the Virgin’s apparitions at this site.
