When asked about Medjugorje, Pope Benedict XVI told one of his possible successors to judge the tree by the fruits. And a personal friend of the Pope from his days as a Cardinal says Cardinal Ratzinger smiled and said “Just go!” when the place was mentioned, a lot like John Paul II’s reaction.
Pope Benedict XVI with Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras who said the Pope told him to judge the tree by its fruits with regard to Medjugorje
Statements from Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras and from a personal friend of the Pope for many years both indicate that Medjugorje is closer to the heart of Pope Benedict XVI than previously hinted by the Pope.
Asked by the Spanish-language Christian news portal Religion en Libertad if he ever heard Pope Benedict XVI about Medjugorje, the Cardinal answers:
“Once we talked about Medjugorje, His Holiness said: “By their fruits shall you know them”, and the fruits that I am seeing are very positive fruits.”
Pope Benedict XVI with his brother Georg who introduced the Croatian restaurant owner Ante Lukac to the future Pope during his time as a priest in Regensburg, Germany, where Lukac lived
Ante Lukac, a Croatian former restaurant owner in the the German city of Regensburg, also got hints as to the Pope’s attitude towards Medjugorje. Lukac tells the Croatian daily Slobodna Dalmacija that he came to know Pope Benedict XVI during his time as a Cardinal, and served a New Years dinner for Cardinal Ratzinger every year for 13 consecutive years.
Ante Lukac’s wife and a friend of the couple also confirm to Slobodna Dalmacija that these dinners took place.
Cardinal Maradiaga of Honduras
“I purchased the wine for the occasion from a friend, a Caporice and one from Medjugorje. I think he loved Medjugorje, and he would actually smile at the mention of Medjugorje, and when I said I had been there on pilgrimage, he would say: Just go!” Ante Lukac tells the Croatian newspaper.
The reaction recieved by Lukac is reminiscent of that which Pope John Paul II often displayed when asked about Medjugorje, according to several people who said the Pope encouraged them to visit the place.
Cardinal Maradiaga with the Pope
Cardinal Maradiaga, a current bookmakers’ outsider as Pope Benedict XVI’s successor with odds around 10 to 1, further tells Religion en Libertad why he thinks Medjugorje captures the hearts of many young people:
“In the simplicity of the message of Mary, we find the values that draw little hearts of the young. This message is based on love, peace, justice, and freedom” the Cardinal says.
“Young people need to be given clear answers to the challenges of life. I tell them that we never had so precise targeting technologies as we have today. There is the GPS which is an amazing invention. However, never before has mankind been so disoriented which means that we also need a spiritual GPS. This GPS has coordinates, a satellite, which is the Word of God, the Eucharist and Marian devotion, central elements of the message of Medjugorje” says Cardinal Maradiaga who has not been to Medjugorje.
“I could not – yet. But that does not mean I will not go there some day.”
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