Cardinal Christoph Schonborn made a personal visit to Medjugorje at the end of 2009, from December 29-31. He met with the visionaries who were in Medjugorje, heard Confessions for two and a half hours, an even climbed Apparition Mountain with visionary, Marija. He celebrated Mass in St. James Church at midnight for the Vigil of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on New Year’s Eve. In his homily he said:
“…These days, we have all come to Medjugorje to be especially close to the Mother of the Lord. To be more exact, we have to say that we have come here because we know that the Mother of the Lord wants to be close to us…â€
Meditating on the Nativity, he said that Mary and Joseph didn’t see the angels but:
“…[the angels] were on the hills with the shepherds. An entire host of angels. But Mary and Joseph only heard about it. The shepherds told them. We also didn’t see the Gospa. But there are people here who told about it. And we trust that the Mother of God really is close to us.â€
As he is a prominent cardinal and a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, his visit attracted worldwide attention. Upon his return to Vienna, he spoke of Medjugorje and his experience there. He said:
“The Church is entitled to the last judgement but one thing is for sure: people are experiencing there the help, closeness, and protection of the Mother of God in a special way…This doesn’t mean that I am anticipating the decision of the Church, but I’m saying distinctly there are fruits there—good fruits—or you could also say there can be no smoke without a fire and in Medjugorje there obviously is a fire.â€
