Oasis of Peace Community Approved by the Vatican

After receiving what he believed was a call from the Holy Spirit to begin a new religous order based upon the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje, Italian priest, Fr. Gianni Sgreva, met with Cardinal Ratzinger on September 9th and Pope John Paul II on September 10 at the Vatican. He was given encouragement from both to answer this call and move forward in prayer and action to bring it to fulfillment. Fr. Gianni named the new community “Oasis of Peace.” Just a few months before Fr. Gianni met with Cardinal Ratzinger and John Paul, Our Lady gave a message calling Medjugorje an oasis of peace. Just after the anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions, Our Lady said on June 26, 1986:

“…God is allowing me along with Himself to bring about this oasis of peace. I wish to call on you to protect it and that the oasis always be unspoiled. There are those who by their carelessness are destroying the peace and the prayer. I am inviting you to give witness and by your life to help to preserve the peace…”

Answering Our Lady’s call, on March 22, 1987, Cardinal Ratzinger signed the official approval of the Church for a private association of the faithful for Fr. Gianni’s new order, the Oasis of Peace.