The visionary Ivan of Medjugorje saw the Pope next to the Madonna

While an immense multitude, in Rome, are queuing for a moment to pray in front of the body of Karol Wojtyla the Great, sensational news bounces from mobile phones to websites, from the United States to Medjugorje in Rome. After having verified - from multiple sources, direct and serious - the reliability, we are able to report it although it is not official.

The Pope had been dead for about four hours on Saturday night, when Ivan Dragicevic, one of the six "boys from Medjugorje" had his daily appearance in Boston, the city where he now lives. It was 18.40 overseas (and it was still April 2nd). While Ivan prayed, as usual, looking at the Madonna, the beautiful young woman who appears to him every day since June 24, 1981, the Pope appeared to her left. One of my sources reconstructs everything in detail: "the Pope was smiling, he looked young and was very happy. He was dressed in white with a golden cloak. Our Lady turned to him and the two, looking at each other, both smiled, an extraordinary, wonderful smile. The Pope continued to look at the Young Woman in ecstasy and she turned to Ivan saying: 'my dear son is with me'. He didn't say anything else, but his face was as radiant as that of the Pope who continued to look at her face. "

This news, as you can understand, has made a lot of impression also reaching some people who are praying in San Pietro on the poor mortal remains of Karol Wojtyla. Christians repeat every Sunday in the Creed: "I believe in eternal life". But obviously the news of this apparition is truly an exceptional thing, as exceptional is the fact that there is a real life after death, as exceptional was the earthly existence of this pope and as exceptional is the "Medjugorje case". Many turn up their noses at a prejudiced hostility to the supernatural eruption. Personally - to be clear in the facts of Medjugorje (if they are true or false) - I made a journalistic inquiry of mine that I collected in the book "Mystery Medjugorje" where - among other things - I reconstructed the reports of the various medical-scientific commissions that (all) said they were unable to explain the exceptional events that occur there, first of all on the six boys, at the moment of the apparitions. Just as medically inexplicable remain the prodigious healings that have been documented there.

Among other things, Our Lady of Medjugorje was, from the beginning, very determined in wanting to remind our generation of the reality of eternal life, of the definitive life which is real life. In fact, already on the second day of the apparitions (June 25, 1981) she reassured one of the girls, Ivanka, still distressed by the recent death of her mother and then showed her to her, close to her. Furthermore, some of the visionaries testify that they were brought to "see" hell, purgatory and heaven, as hell was shown to the children of Fatima.

An in-depth study of these events was made by Father Livio Fanzaga in his books on Medjugorje, also valuable for deciphering certain "theological" details such as the youth of Mary (and of the Pope), a sign of God's eternal youth. A splendid meditation theological on Medjugorje by Don Divo Barsotti, published in Avvenire, explained: “with Mary the new world appears ... It is as if suddenly a world that is always present, but that usually remains hidden, becomes visible; as if the eyes of man acquired a new visual power ... From the apparitions we have the certainty of a world of light, purity and love ... in the Madonna it is the whole creation that has been renewed. She herself is the new creation, uncontaminated by evil and victorious ... The apparition makes the redeemed world present ... The apparition is therefore not an action of God on the imagination of man. I believe that its objective reality cannot be denied. Truly it is the Holy Virgin who appears, truly men enter into relationship with her and her divine Son ... The Virgin cannot abandon her children before the public and solemn manifestation of her victory over evil. Mother of all, she could not separate from us who live in pain, subjected to every temptation, unable to escape death ". To those unaware of Christian history all this may seem incredible, but - as the historian Giorgio Fedalto, of the University of Padua has shown, in the book The Gates of Heaven (San Paolo editore) - Christian centuries, even recent ones, are literally full of mystical graces made to saints or ordinary Christians who confirm the reality of the Hereafter. In short, it is the Church which - at a careful glance - appears literally immersed in the supernatural for centuries. As far as Medjugorje is concerned, it is still a challenge: before taking a position, you must honestly go to see, investigate, study the facts (like the various teams of scholars) with objectivity. Otherwise, only unfounded prejudices are expressed and only the (obscurantist) fear of encountering a phenomenon that upsets all one's ideas is shown.

But let's go back to the "canonization" of the pope who made the Virgin herself. There is a precedent that featured Padre Pio. The diary (just published) of its spiritual director, Father Agostino da S. Marco in Lamis, has just recently revealed it. On November 18, 1958 he writes: “The beloved Padre Pio lives his life of prayer and intimate union with the Lord always, he can be said at all times of the day and of the night's rest. Even in the conversations he may have with his brothers and others, he maintains his internal union with God. He suffered a few painful otitis a few days ago, so he left two days to confess the women. He felt all the pain of his soul for the death of Pope Pius XII (died in Castelgandolfo at 3,52 on 9 October, ed.). But then the Lord showed him to him in the glory of Heaven. "

Like Padre Pio, mystics always face great difficulties in being accepted. The great philosopher Bergson (who converted to Catholicism) said: "The great obstacle they will encounter is that which has prevented the creation of a divine humanity". John Paul II - who was a great contemplative - was instead deeply open to the supernatural. As evidenced by his veneration for Helena-Faustina Kowalska (one of the greatest mystics of the twentieth century) that he himself helped to accept (also at the Holy Office, in the sixties), which he canonized and for which he instituted the party of Divine Mercy which - in the Pope's intentions - was to be the key to reading the twentieth century and the whole of history (as also underlined in the last book, Memory and Identity).

That the Pope's death occurred precisely on this feast (which begins at Vespers on Saturday) is extraordinarily significant. Also because it was a "first Saturday" of the month, the day on which - according to the pious practice instituted by the Virgin of Fatima - she herself calls those who entrust themselves to her. The "implication" of Pope Wojtyla with Fatima is now well known. Less known is its opening in Medjugorje (still not recognized by the Church), but the testimonies are many and univocal. I cite two cases. The bishops of the Indian Ocean received by the Pope on November 23, 1993, at a certain point - speaking of Medjugorje - were heard by him: "These messages are the key to understanding what is happening and what will happen in the world". And to Monsignor Krieger, former bishop of Florianopolis, leaving for the village of Bosnia on February 24, 1990, the Holy Father said: "Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world".

It is no coincidence that the apparitions began in the aftermath of the attack on the pope, as if to accompany and support this second phase of his pontificate. From the beginning, the visionaries reported that Our Lady defined John Paul II as the pope whom she herself had chosen and donated to humanity for this dramatic time. Our Lady continually asked to accompany him in prayer, one day he kissed a picture with his image and on May 13, 1982, a year after the attack, he told the boys that the enemies wanted to kill him, but she protected him because he he is the father of all men.

The "case" (if you can call it case) wanted a large meeting of Medjugorjan prayers to be set for Sunday 3 April 2005 in Milan, Mazdapalace. Nobody could have imagined that just that night the Pope would die. So last Sunday, in front of ten thousand people in prayer for the Pope, Father Jozo Zovko, who was the parish priest of Medjugorje at the beginning of the apparitions, underlined this mysterious and significant circumstance and wanted to remember his meetings with the pope and his benevolence and its protection.

Under this pontificate, Medjugorje has indeed become one of the centers of the Christian world. Millions of people found their faith and themselves there. In Italy it is a submerged world, ignored by the media, but the glance on Sunday at Mazdapalace, or the large number of people who listen to Radio Maria every day, was enough to realize how much the Queen of Peace has enlarged her reign under the pontificate of Pope Wojtyla. On Saturday 2 April, before the pope's death, appearing to another of the six visionaries, Mirjana, in Medjugorje, Our Lady - according to the chronicles - addressed this significant invitation: “At this moment I ask you to renew the Church ". The girl observed that it was too difficult, too big a task. And Our Lady, according to the Medjugorjan reports, replied: "My children, I will be with you! My apostles, I will be with you and help you! Renew yourself and your families first, and it will be easier for you ”. Mirjana still said to her: "Stay with us, Mother!".

While many look to the Conclave with political criteria, one must ask whether a mysterious force is at work within the Church which guides, protects and manifests itself to help humanity in grave danger. Karol Wojtyla had no doubts about it and for twenty-seven years he repeated its name to humanity, entrusting her whole self, the Church and the world.