One year ago, the Vatican placed upon the Bishop’s Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina the responsibility to open up a new commission to continue the investigation of the Medjugorje apparitions. The Bishop’s Conference met this summer with Archbishop Alessandro D’Errico, the apostolic nuncio to Bosnia-Herzegovina, to discuss assembling a commission to study the effects of pilgrimages to Medjugorje. With this study commission, they wished to address the following questions:
What are the experiences of pilgrims who visit Medjugorje?
What motivates some people to make repeated visits there?
What effect does their pilgrimage have upon the way they live after they return home?
Answering these questions would help form an assessment of the apparitions. In July, 2007, Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo said that the commission was waiting on the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith to recommend theologians for the panel. There had yet to be any formal comment from the Vatican concerning the new commission. Even with the beginning of a new commission, bishops stated that it is not likely that the Church would be making any final conclusion on the authenticity of the reported apparitions at Medjugorje until the visionaries’ apparitions had ended.
