Thousands flock to Bosnia's Roman Catholic shrine

MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia, June 25 (Reuters) Thousands of pilgrims from around the world flocked today to this Roman Catholic shrine in southern Bosnia on the 25th anniversary of the reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary to six children.

Worshippers attended indoor and outdoor masses in several languages, prayed and lit candles under scorching heat to mark the event that the Vatican has never officially acknowledged.

Some made the gruelling 3 km ascent to a hill above Medjugorje where the children have said Mary appeared to them in a blinding flash of light and gave them a message of peace for the world.

In the square outside the church in Medjugorje, women prayed and walked on their knees around the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Others claimed they witnessed miracles.

''Our friend is old and she has a shattered knee but she was the first to climb the hill and the first to go down. That is a miracle,'' Saly Vallo of the Philippines, who came with a group of compatriots from London, said.

Up to 30 million people, according to some estimates, have visited this village since June 24-25, 1981 while Marian experts continue to debate the importance and veracity of the claims.

The Catholic Church has said believers are free to visit Medjugorje, and that it was monitoring the issue but would not necessarily have to give a formal judgment on it.

Even Bishop Ratko Peric, whose diocese covers Medjugorje, has refuted the apparitions' claims and an estimated 30,000 messages Mary said to have delivered to some of the children.

One of them, Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, who now lives in Italy, says Mary continues to speak to her on the 25th of every month and the messages are published on the Internet.

''Regardless of how people today view Medjugorje, it has become a world-wide important place of prayer,'' Franciscan Father Ivan Sesar, pastor of St James Parish in Medjugorje, said after holding a packed mass.

''The Church has its laws and it is monitoring the phenomenon of Medjugorje but is not in a rush,'' he added.

The claims have nevertheless helped the economy of the once impoverished village in the rugged Herzegovina region, where shops and restaurants have been built to cater to visitors.

The faithful kept coming even during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, when Bosnian Croats, staunch Catholics, fought Muslims in the nearby regional capital Mostar.

Pace Maria Rosa Zarri from Cortemilia, Italy, said it did not matter to her that the Vatican did not recognise Medjugorje.

''I have come here eight times because my husband was gravely ill for 13 years and it is here that I found comfort and strengthened my faith,'' she said as she lit a candle.

REUTERS KD RS2102