Rome (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Vatican has confirmed the creation of an international commission to investigate the authenticity of Marian apparitions in Medjugorje (Bosnia-Herzegovina) which has for years been a place of pilgrimage for millions of people. A Vatican press office statement has announced that Card. Camillo Ruini, will lead the commission of inquiry. The identity of other group members remains unknown for now. The note states that the committee will work under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and will be composed of bishops, specialists and experts.  

For the past 19 years the phenomenon of apparitions in Medjugorje have been a source of enthusiasm and division within the Catholic Church. It all started on June 24, 1981 when six children in the village reported seeing appear in a region called Podbrdo (on Crnica mountain), a beautiful young woman with a baby in her arms, which was immediately identified as the Virgin. From that day the young people say they have had recurring visions and that they communicate with the Virgin. Despite the skepticism of the bishop of Mostar, Msgr. Ratko Peric, and many prelates in the Church, over the years Medjugorje has become one of the main places of pilgrimage of European Catholicism.

On 1 January this year the card. Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna visited Medjugorje. On this occasion, the cardinal declared his open interest in the appearances, sparking the discontent of the local Church which has always been sceptical of the phenomenon. Returning from a pilgrimage to the Pope, the archbishop declared the need to create a special commission studies on the case.