About the Author
Fr Svetozar Kraljević was born on September 14, 1951 in Kočerin, Herzegovina. He finished elementary school in his birthplace and high school in Split. He entered the Franciscan Order on November 28, 1972. He studied philosophy and theology in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Washington DC. Fr Svetozar arrived in America on June 16, 1975. He was ordained a priest on September 3, 1977 in Chicago. He did pastoral work in West Allis, Wisconsin, Chicago and New York, and then in his homeland in Humac, Konjic, Mostar and Široki Brijeg. He was transferred to Medjugorje in 1997. When Fr. Slavko passed away, he became the director of Mother’s Village.
Fr Svetozar Kraljević OFM has been associated with Medjugorje from the early days. He published one of the very first books on the apparitions. He has regularly given talks to pilgrims, especially in English, a language he learned while working as a priest in New York, and he has travelled to several countries to give retreats and to explain the Medjugorje events and messages.
Since 2013, Fr Svetozar Kraljević serves in the Croatian capital Zagreb.
About This Book
God is free to intervene in human history at any time. Theology, because it is in the service of the Church, must recognize God’s salvific work in the world, which is always the continuation of what began in the Old Testament and was completed for all time in Jesus Christ. “Therefore the essence of all private revelations after Christ must be such as to fit into this eschatological salvific reality” (Karl Rahner).
Theology classifies apparitions in two categories: the mystical and the prophetic. The former is exclusively for the person in question, for his or her personal growth in the spiritual life. The latter takes the form of a gift, to either an individual or a group, for the public benefit – for the benefit of the whole Church.
How does one prove the authenticity of apparitions? The goal and the duty of investigation is to ascertain if such occurrences are products of the imagination and subjective experiences of the alleged visionaries. It cannot be presumed that visions are objective or “natural”; they must be proved. It must also be proved that the content of a vision and its formulation are beyond the grasp and abilities of the visionaries.
The greatest mistake, however, is to expect visionaries (if there are more than one) to relate their messages in exactly the same way. Subjectivity and differences in experiencing, receiving, transmitting, and explaining messages are not arguments against authenticity, but speak in its favor. To report a supernatural experience (such as a vision) “objectively,” every individual must use his or her own expressions, metaphors, and descriptions.
The Author Speaks
For a group of children in the remote village of Međugorje, June 24, 1981, was an ordinary, uneventful day. As they were walking in the surrounding mountains awaiting the next same kind of day to come, life took a new and unbelievable turn. When the children returned home, they spoke of an unusual experience of having seen Our Lady. Since then, this story of the children seeing Our Lady has already involved millions of people all over the world and for most of them life will never be the same. The apparitions long ago went beyond just a local importance and have become a global event biblically expressing the love of God for man and the thirst of man for God.
This book will give only a limited insight into those events of the first days and some reflections that make no pretense of explaining everything. Every pilgrim traveling from far away, struggling on the journey, climbing the hills, and receiving the graces of sacraments will thereby become a participant in the very same events with his very own story.
Themes
Beginnings
Developments
Interviews and Testimonies
Mission of Medjugorje Friends
Documents and Evaluations
Publisher: ICMM
Author: Fr Svetozar Kraljević
Original language: English
Edited in 2019
Size: 200 x 130
232 pages with photos
