In May 1996, a Friend of Medjugorje opened the Community of Caritas Mission House in Medjugorje. The purpose of the Mission House is to offer a presence in Medjugorje where pilgrims are invited to go deeper into the messages of Our Lady. The first and foremost responsibility of the Mission House as established by Caritas’ founder, is to make available and distribute every message Our Lady gives in Medjugorje. At the time the Mission House opened, the parish made available the 25th of the month message that visionary, Marija, received. The messages that Our Lady gave through visionary, Ivan, during his prayer group meetings were not made available to pilgrims. Often pilgrims who were present at these apparitions, never even clearly heard the message, and left Medjugorje without knowing what Our Lady said. A Friend of Medjugorje, being committed to rectifying this, created the infrastructure for Ivan’s messages being translated “officially†and distributed to everyone on beautiful gold-embossed keepsake message cards free of charge to anyone who walks into the Caritas Mission House. Years later, it was the same with Mirjana’s second of the month messages, where Our Lady gave the message, but it was not made available to everyone. A Friend of Medjugorje established the infrastructure for the translation of Mirjana’s messages and the distribution. It took several years to become established in the village, but slowly people became aware of the Mission House and began talking about it to other people. The Caritas Mission House has become known as “The Message Place,†by pilgrims themselves naming it so. Outside of Our Lady’s messages, the Mission House is filled with teachings on the messages of Our Lady written by a Friend of Medjugorje over the past thirty years of his involvement with Our Lady’s apparitions. The various books, booklets, audio CD’s, posters, etc., are offered free in both English and Croatian. Many pilgrims from around the world make the Mission House their first and last stop on their pilgrimage; their first stop to pick up materials to read during their pilgrimage, and their last stop to load up on materials to bring home with them to spread the news of Medjugorje to family and friends.
