Dominican priest, chaplain at Medjugorje visits St. Domimic

Dominican Father Leon Pereira, left, of the order’s English Province, visited St. Dominic Parish Nov. 23 to share his personal witness of Mary’s messages in Medjugorje. Father Periera, pictured with St. Dominic pastor Father Michael Hurley, right, is chaplain to English-speaking pilgrims to the town in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia Herzegovina where Mary is said to have appeared to six Herzegovinian teenagers in 1981.

Though neither the local diocese nor the Catholic Church have recognized the apparitions as supernatural or authentic, Pope Francis declared in 2017 that the original visions are worth studying because people who go there convert, find God and change their lives. The Vatican officially recognized Medjugorje this summer as a place of pilgrimage. (Photo courtesy St. Dominic Parish)