United States president, Ronald Reagan, died on June 5, 2004, after suffering with alzheimer’s for nine years. A deeply spiritual man, Reagan became convinced when he survived an assasin’s bullet that God had a purpose for his life, which he believed was to help take down Communism, help avert a nuclear disaster by moving towards mutual disarmament between the United States and the Soviet Union, and help restore religious liberty to the Eastern Bloc nations that had suffered so terribly over the past century. Over his eight years in the office of president, he became very close to Pope John Paul II who also believed God had preserved his life after he was almost fatally shot on May 13, 1981. Through John Paul II’s influence, and also significant Catholics in his cabinet, Reagan was introduced to Our Lady and Her apparitions in Fatima and also in Medjugorje. In 1989, Reagan received a letter from Medjugorje visionary, Marija, who spoke about Our Lady’s wish for peace and assured the president of her prayers. In Reagan’s own words, he was “deeply moved†by Marija’s gesture. Shortly before Reagan’s death, his wife, Nancy Reagan, called Marija at her home in Italy and asked Marija to pray for her husband who was suffering. Fifteen years had passed since that exchange of letters, yet, Nancy Reagan still carried in her heart what it had meant to President Reagan. This gesture from Nancy Reagan reflects just how much her husband had been “moved†by the testimony and the prayers of Marija.
