Mirjana Meets With Pope John Paul II

Archbishop Frane Franic accompanied 1,000 students from his diocese to Castel Gandolfo near Rome to see the Holy Father. Visionary, Mirjana, was among the youth. When the Pope was passing by, Archbishop Franic introduced John Paul II to Mirjana. He showed obvious pleasure and interest in meeting her. He invited her to meet with him in Castel Gandolfo the following morning. They met for 20 minutes in private. Years later, after the death of Pope John Paul II, while speaking with a group of pilgrims outside her home, Mirjana recalled her meeting with the Holy Father, revealing part of their conversation together, parts of which were somewhat humorous. The following comes from the transcript of her talk:

“I personally had such a great honor to be able to speak with the late Pope John Paul II. That was so beautiful. I was in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome with all other pilgrims. The Pope, as he was walking by, was blessing everybody. And then this priest I was with (Archbishop Franic) said, ‘Holy Father, this is Mirjana from Medjugorje.’ He came back, blessed me again and he left…However, in the afternoon we received an invitation for the next morning to come to Castel Gandolfo, close to Rome, in order to talk to Holy Father. I don’t have to tell you that I couldn’t sleep all night. Tomorrow, when I reached the place, he saw that I was so excited. We were alone and then he started talking to me in Polish. He thought I would understand because both are Slavic languages. He wanted to make me feel comfortable but I didn’t understand a word because it’s not even close to our language. However, I was crying and I couldn’t catch a breath to say a word. So when I finally succeeded to say a word, I said, ‘Holy Father, can we try in Italian?’ Then we talked, and among other things he said to me, ‘If I were not Pope, I would’ve been in Medjugorje a long time ago. I know everything, I have been following everything. Ask pilgrims to pray for my intentions. And take good care of Medjugorje because Medjugorje is the hope for the entire world.”