Apostolate strives to help others taste Medjugorje’s fruits

“All he really wanted to do was climb Apparition Hill,” Janet Moore said. “It can be hard-going for many able-bodied people, but it’s like he just flew up there. My daughter, Marie, and I had to hurry to keep up with him.”

Although Moore’s husband, Kevin, had spent most of their 2017 pilgrimage in a wheelchair, she recounted, he had been determined to traverse that toughest segment – which ended at the spot in which a handful of youths claimed to have first seen and communicated with the Virgin Mary in 1981 – on foot.

Merely getting to that point had been a risk. About six weeks before their departure for a pilgrimage that began in Portugal, proceeded to Italy, and then concluded in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kevin’s routine hernia repair went awry, and the resultant antibiotic-resistant infection left him burning with fever, 60 pounds lighter and usually too weak to walk. 

“He was deathly ill,” Moore said. “We went in faith, but he had struggled the whole time.”

Except for the 45-minute ascent and the trip back down.

Vatican note

In September 2024, the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a 10,000-word document: “Note About the Spiritual Experience Connected with Medjugorje.” Although it reserved judgment on whether the Virgin Mary had actually appeared to a small group of alleged seers, the notification acknowledged many benefits connected to the messages and spiritual practices associated with the place.

A Sept. 19, 2024, Catholic News Service article said Pope Francis approved the dicastery’s recognition of “the abundant and widespread fruits, ‘which are so beautiful and positive, associated with devotion to Mary, Queen of Peace, and with pilgrimages to Medjugorje.’”

“The Vatican’s positive judgment of the spiritual experience connected to Medjugorje highlighted: ‘abundant conversions; a frequent return to the sacraments, particularly, the Eucharist and reconciliation; many vocations to priestly, religious and married life; a deepening of the life of faith; a more intense practice of prayer; many reconciliations between spouses; and the renewal of marriage and family life,’” the CNS article said.

Moore also attests to those abundant fruits. A parishioner from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Wichita, she says her own experience points to a bumper crop of good fruit from pilgrimages to Medjugorje. Earlier this week, Moore, who has a master’s degree in theology from Newman University in Wichita, discussed Medjugorje in an evening presentation at the Spiritual Life Center in Bel Aire. 

Like many who attest to the graces connected with the place, she is keen on spreading them. That is especially the case for priests, she says, so when she launched the Apostolate of Priestly Consecration, which leads pilgrimages to Medjugorje, the apostolate committed to helping priests make the pilgrimage for free. 

And in a little less than half a decade, the ministry has overseen 17 pilgrimages. Last autumn, from Oct. 25-Nov. 2, Diocese of Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme – along with five other priests – participated in one of them.

“He was a beautiful spiritual director for everyone who was there,” Moore said. “It just meant the world to me.” 

The apostolate has led nearly 500 pilgrims, she reports, including free pilgrimages for 99 priests.

“It’s fulfilling, amazing, overwhelming, and humbling that God is using me in this way,” Moore said. “I started this with no money, no connections, and no idea what I was doing. I’m simply in awe of how God works.”

Oasis of Catholicism

Retired priests Fr. Ken Schuckman and Fr. James Mainzer were among the five priests who joined Bishop Kemme and a group of 14 lay pilgrims – seven from the Diocese of Wichita – on that pilgrimage that began on Oct. 25. The pilgrimage’s focus on personal consecration to Jesus through Mary according to St. Louis de Montfort’s formula helped draw the pilgrims together, Fr. Mainzer suggests.

“Through the spiritual exercises and the meals together, we all got to know each other better and formed a particular bond through the experience,” Fr. Mainzer said. “Medjugorge was an oasis of Catholicism and the peace was palpable.”

The Medjugorje pilgrimage the apostolate has scheduled for this year will be Sept. 8-17, and a Sept. 17-25 Franciscan Jubilee pilgrimage in Italy that follows in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi follows immediately after. According to Moore, anyone interested should visit priestlyconsecration.com/pilgrimages. One pilgrim who was among those last year to merge a pilgrimage to Rome with one to Medjugorje described the Rome portion as “for the head,” and the Medjugorje segment as “for the heart.”

Fr. Mainzer indicates that he made his first Medjugorje pilgrimage decades ago, shortly after his ordination. “This return trip was like going full circle, to give thanks to Our Lady for her patronage and advocacy in my life,” he said. “The character of the trip for me was a deeper focus and appreciation for the gift of the priesthood. It was worth it, and I’m glad I went.”

A medical longshot

According to Moore, Kevin’s infirmity did not end with the surprise climb up Apparition Hill.  “God did not heal my husband at that time,” she said, “but he was given an amazing reprieve.” 

But as they sought medical help, even a trip to the renowned Mayo Clinic seemed futile.

“A surgeon there there told us he needed such a long, delicate, difficult surgery there was only one person who could do it,” Moore said. “But the surgeon was booked out for three to six months just to meet with her. Kevin didn’t have that kind of time.”

But then, the surgeon told them, sometimes doctors at Mayo occasionally have unexpected openings for an impromptu consultation. The Moores clung to that thread of hope.

And so on Sept. 13 – an anniversary date for one of the 1917 Fatima apparitions – they hung out in a Mayo Clinic surgeon’s office without an appointment. 

“At the very end of the day, somebody came out for us, saying ‘The doctor will see you,’” Moore said. “After listening to us, she said, ‘You will never believe this, but just today someone canceled a 10-14 hour surgery scheduled for tomorrow. We can do this.’”

On Sept. 14, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, Kevin underwent a successful surgery that proved to be a turning point in his battle. “There were still years of getting better, but the surgery helped,” Moore said. “It was an amazing grace.”

It had been on that preceding pilgrimage in which Moore said the seed of her apostolate was planted. She recounts sitting in Eucharistic adoration after Mass when she experienced a profoundly moving encounter with the Blessed Mother in tears. “There weren’t any words,” Moore said. “She was the Sorrowful Mother crying for all her children, but especially her priest sons. This experience changed me forever.”

She goes on to explain that the apostolate was then formed to pray and sacrifice for priests, while working to help bring all souls, including as many priests as possible, to Mary. Moore expresses a desire to achieve that by both interior means, through total consecration, and exterior ones, through Medjugorje pilgrimages.

And so now Moore has arranged and led those 17 Medjugorje pilgrimages, with nearly 100 priests taking advantage of having their ways paid thanks to the generosity of the apostolate’s benefactors. It’s not so different from another synchronicity that preceded Moore’s own first pilgrimage to the village, all the way back in the early 1990s.

“I was watching EWTN during a low point in my life, and Mother Angelica shared about Medjugorje – telling us never to discount going because of money, and to ‘Just pray and Mary will provide a way if she wants you to go,’” Moore said. “I had no money, and so I started praying. Within two weeks, I received the exact amount I needed.”