"Today, dioceses and other institutions can organize official pilgrimages. There are no more problems," claims the Polish archbishop, Henryk Hoser, tasked by Rome with pastoral oversight at Medjugorje, in an interview at his residence in Warsaw. "Pope Francis recently asked an Albanian cardinal to give his blessing to the faithful present in Medjugorje," he added in the interview.
"I am full of admiration for the work the Franciscans are doing there," he told the news outlet, according to an initial, rough translation. "With a relatively small team - they are a dozen - they do an amazing job welcoming pilgrims. Every summer they organize a youth festival. This year, there were 50,000 people from around the world, with more than 700 priests," he added.
The prelate also notes that "Confessions [at Medjugorje] are massive," calling them a "phenomenon."
"They have about fifty confessionals, which are not enough. These are very deep confessions."
"And what confirms the authenticity of the place is the large amount of charitable institutions that exist around the sanctuary. And yet another dimension: the great effort that is being made at the level of Christian formation. Every year there are high-quality congresses for different audiences, be they priests, doctors, young people or couples."
More, the archbishop, who extensively visited and studied the site, said a decree of the former Bishops' Conference of the former Yugoslavia, which before the Balkan war advised against pilgrimages organized by bishops in Medjugorje, "is no longer relevant."
