24 October - 25 October 2012, Bosnia
Looking at them made me feel as there was something to feel and to see
there. I tried to do that but I could not perceive much more than a peer
pressure to take this whole thing as serious and real as possible. Maybe
because of my strong catholic education and my consequent resistance to
it, I did
not feel at ease.
On my way down the hill, I sat on a rock for a short break. An Austrian lady - probably because of my beard, sandals and backpack - thought I was a pilgrim and hence offered me food, money and shelter. Respectful for her faith, I refused her offer: I did not want to take advantage of her devotion.
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| The main Church in Medjugorie |
From Kosovo I headed to Bosnia as I wanted to see Sarajevo before moving to Belgrade.
Arriving from the region of Hercegovina in the south of Bosnia allowed me to stop in Medjugorie and Mostar.
Medjugorie is a destination of catholic pilgrimage after reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary.
Arriving from the region of Hercegovina in the south of Bosnia allowed me to stop in Medjugorie and Mostar.
Medjugorie is a destination of catholic pilgrimage after reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary.
Although
not particular religious, I was interested to see this place and the people who go there.
I arrived on the morning of 24 October and the town appeared immediately for its expected commercial side: a lot of shops selling every kind of religious souvenirs to a number of pilgrims from all around the world but mainly from Italy, Austria, Poland and Germany.
I arrived on the morning of 24 October and the town appeared immediately for its expected commercial side: a lot of shops selling every kind of religious souvenirs to a number of pilgrims from all around the world but mainly from Italy, Austria, Poland and Germany.
A
warm autumnal shining sun allowed me to walk around the pilgrimage places only with my t shirt. I climbed the hill to reach the
apparition spot where pilgrims were praying and some crying.
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| Climbing up to the apparition hill |
On my way down the hill, I sat on a rock for a short break. An Austrian lady - probably because of my beard, sandals and backpack - thought I was a pilgrim and hence offered me food, money and shelter. Respectful for her faith, I refused her offer: I did not want to take advantage of her devotion.
In the afternoon I
participated to a presentation of a community for ex-heroin abusers. Three
young men talked about their experience with drug and how their life changed after they entered the
community Cenacolo and how they were rescued by faith. This community
was established by a nun in 1982. She took a decaying farmhouse in Saluzzo -
a town near Turin - and with little money she renovated it and started
taking care of young drug addicts. The project worked well and now the
community counts about 20 bases in Europe and America, one of them in
Medjugorie.
After
the presentation it was late afternoon and I needed a place to sleep.
So I started asking around in the town for a cheap accommodation. A
group with a priest, two mystic nuns and a pious woman offered to me to spend the night in a
beautiful villa owned by a wealthy American lady giving hospitality to pilgrims.
Notwithstanding
my resistance and my attempts to explain that I am not a religious
pilgrim, they seem to not care about it and eventually I was brought to
this place. The pious woman tried to convince me to regain my faith
and to enter the seminary to become a priest.
In order to persuade me to come back to the path of righteousness, she insisted that I should meet a clergyman with special capacities to read inside people and talk directly to their heart. I was intrigued by this figure. In a van with other pilgrims arrived an aged bishop on a wheelchair. He is supposed to levitate and to carry invisible stigmata.
In order to persuade me to come back to the path of righteousness, she insisted that I should meet a clergyman with special capacities to read inside people and talk directly to their heart. I was intrigued by this figure. In a van with other pilgrims arrived an aged bishop on a wheelchair. He is supposed to levitate and to carry invisible stigmata.
I
found myself in a uncomfortable situation. I was keeping the hand of
this old man surrounded by about 20 devoted people and answering his
questions about my life, studies and faith. Eventually, when I said
that I do not even pray, he told me that I should welcome Jesus in my heart
and he let my hand go. I did not have the feeling that he actually told me anything meaningful.
Probably because they finally realised that I was not a believer, I had to find my own place to spend the night.
Probably because they finally realised that I was not a believer, I had to find my own place to spend the night.
In
this place of religious pilgrimage I saw a lot of brainwashed people
who desperately need to believe in something. On the other hand the most
precious experience has been the presentation in the community by the
ex-drug addicts. By working hard on themselves, they developed a strong loving attitude that I could not
see elsewhere in the religious people or clergymen. Herman Hesse was right: "the
shortest way to holiness is the hell". Through heroin those men saw the worst part of life and reached an awareness of
themselves, a maturity and a humbleness that I had barely seen before.
Finally, satisfied for this experience that allowed me to see this contrast, I left the town and hitched to Mostar.
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| My stage after Medjugorie: Mostar |
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