Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Sunday, 27 Sep 1992 17:42:19 CDT
From: <U15231@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Pilgrims brave Bosnia war hoping for vision of Virgin Mary

From: clarinews@clarinet.com (LAURA PITTER)
Subject: Pilgrims brave Bosnia war hoping for vision of Virgin Mary

        MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Within earshot of the gunfire
and artillery bombardments of the Yugoslav war, international pilgrims
continue to seek miracles and enlightenment in this village made famous
by the reported sightings of the Virgin Mary.
        While the war has deterred about 90 percent of the tourist flow that
once brought up to 5,000 visitors a day, enough still come to pack the
300-capacity community Catholic church wall-to-wall. At a recent mass,
about 200 people spilled outside and heard the service on loudspeakers.
        ``It's the safest place in the world,'' said Sister Frances Schug, a
nun from Wisconsin in the United States. ``Bombs fell here and they did
not explode.''
        According to a well-spread rumor, Croatian police who control the
area have found unexploded artillery shells in the village. The
perpetuators of the tale credit the Virgin Mary with protecting the
town.
        ``I am convinced there is something special here,'' said Blago
Krlsic, 39, a Croatian Army soldier with a rosary around his neck.
``Look at all the people here. If it weren't special, they wouldn't come
from all over.''
        Krlsic is one of many soldiers who come to Medjugorje for confession
and prayer. Visiting the town, he said, makes him ``feel less afraid
when the Serbs are attacking.''
        A mass is said in English each day to accommodate the international
crowd that has flocked to this sacred town for the past 11 years.
        The pilgrims are drawn to Medjugorje by the story of six children who
saw a vision of the Virgin Mary on a small hill near the village. The
children resisted attempts by villagers and authorities to force them to
recant their story.
        Despite official attempts to crush the belief something of great
religious significance was occurring, the children said they continued
to see the apparition and receive messages from it.
        As the story spread around the world, pilgrims swarmed to the town in
increasing numbers. The government relaxed its opposition after seeing
the profit generated by the ballooning tourist traffic.
        The children have grown. Two of them, Mirjana Dragicevic and Ivanka
Ivankovic, stopped seeing the visions years ago, after claiming to have
received 10 ``secrets'' promised them by the Virgin. They have since
married and have their own children.
        The other four claim to have received nine of the secrets and are
still seeing the visions and talking with the Virgin.
        Ivan Dragecivic, at 27 is the oldest of the visionaries. He lives on
a nearby farm and returns to Medjugorje daily to speak with Mary in the
upper loft of the community church.
        Each day, visiting pilgrims line up outside waiting for Dragecivic to
go to the loft in hopes of being allowed to watch him during his moment
of ecstacy. The loft is too small to accommodate everyone.
        On a recent visit, an American woman from Wisconsin pleaded with the
pilgrims to let her send her son through. The 9-year-old boy wore a
baseball cap to cover his bald head.
        ``Please,'' she begged, ``let him in. He has brain cancer.''
        He was allowed through, although somewhat reluctantly, by the others
waiting in line and joined about 50 people in the loft.
        Onlookers held their rosaries and watched silently as Dragecivic
kneeled before a giant oil painting of Mary and gazed up with open eyes,
moving his lips as if in a silent conversation with her.
        ``The most important thing the Virgin Mary said tonight when she
appeared in my prayer...was that she blessed all the people present,''
he said after his five-minute vision was over.
        ``Mary asked for peace tonight as she does all the time. Tonight
there were no special messages for the world,'' he said. ``The holy Mary
said she was happy and then she talked to me and I talked to her and a
lot of what we said was private.''
        The small village, where early pilgrims once were invited into
private homes, has taken on the look of a package tour destination over
the years. Big hotels and restaturants stand where once there were small
farms and markets.
        Across the street from the church, the main strip is lined with cafes
and shops that sell Jesus dolls and rosaries in all colors from pearly
white to neon green.
        ``We can see in the Western world that people don't know how to live
with money,'' said Slavko Barbaric, a priest who arrived in Medjugorje a
few months after the first apparitions were reported. ``We can just hope
and pray that it doesn't taint things here because it can become very
dangerous.''