PHILIPPINES: Government Trying To Promote Faith Based Tourism. Good Results Showing Already

Easter, called Holy Week in the Philippines, is a time for family and religious observance in this largely Catholic country.

During this period traffic eases as people leave the big city for the countryside.

It’s this trend of faith tourism which causes people to travel specifically to visit holy sites,that makes Philippine tourism officials looking to capitalise on the country’s religious monuments.

Earlier this year, the Philippine Department of Tourism announced plans to turn the country into a faith tourism destination.

The government hopes to promote the country as a religious tourism destination for Catholics overseas.

Tourism in the Philippines has long lagged behind other Southeast Asian countries despite the lure of its tropical climate, archipelago of islands, white-sand beaches and other natural wonders.

The country drew 6.7 million tourists in 2017, far fewer than the 35 million that visited Thailand.

The unique attractions in Philippines are not sufficiently strong in themselves to attract the numbers required to support a significant tourism sector.

The decision to restore churches also comes at a time when some of the country’s most famous beaches have reached the limits of how much tourism they can sustain without permanent damage to ecosystems.

The government announced the island destination of Boracay will be closed for six months to address issues of water contamination by sewage and litter.

But casting the Philippines as a holy destination is a complicated exercise in nation branding. The country nowadays most often makes headlines for President Rodrigo Duterte’s unapologetically bloody war on drugs.

Duterte came to power promising to bring order to the Philippines, by force if necessary.

Nearly two years into his presidency, the Philippines is often named alongside countries such as Russia, Turkey and India, as part of a global shift toward authoritarian governments that curb civic and political rights.

Even in this era when brash, outspoken leaders are not uncommon, Duterte manages to stand out for his eye-popping comments.

Just this week he called a UN human rights official empty headed. He has also claimed to be happy about the prospect of slaughtering millions of drug addicts, and has more than once joked about rape.

Filipino flagellants whip their backs in front of a church on Maundy Thursday in San Fernando, Pampanga province, Philippines.

Many Filipino Catholic mark the Holy Week by submitting to different forms of physical penance in the hopes of being forgiven for their sins. Is that not enough? It is almost done in no other country in the world.

It is not only Duterte’s words that are controversial. While domestically Duterte is popular for affecting perceived improvements to public safety.

Extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers have been recorded under his watch and or orders, and rights groups have accused his administration of stamping out freedom of expression.

Despite this backdrop, officials say their efforts to encourage faith tourism are already bearing fruit.

There was a recorded increase in tourist arrivals in the different destinations during the Holy Week season, says Rebecca V Labit, director of faith tourism at the government department.

Manila alone, the walled city as it is known, the site registered an estimated 1,270,792 visitors for Holy Thursday and Good Friday as compared to last year’s 250,000 visitors.

The massive increase can be attributed to media support, massive support of the department.

Also this year, various activities have been organised with the intention of encouraging faith tourism.

In various cities, Catholics carried out Senakulo - the Passion Play or Easter pageant, performing dramatisations of the life of Jesus Christ.

Group tours, on foot or bicycle, were organised for several churches and a ritualistic reading aloud of a Philippine epic narrative about the life of Christ, were held.

Filipino priest Father Robert Reyes sprinkles holy water on the gates of the Malacanang presidential palace compound as he joins a rally during the holy week in Manila.

The group used the demonstration to dramatise the plight of the urban poor under the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

But it is still far from certain whether the government’s efforts will lead to a sustained rise in faith tourism in the Philippines, and whether that will bring a significant economic boost.

Since the country is geographically far from Europe and Latin America’s major Catholic countries, the Philippine government has said it will be targeting markets in Asia, particularly South Korea.

Faith based tourism in the Philippines is largely domestic and diaspora based. It is hard to imagine them attracting many long-haul visitors.

Nevertheless, the government has an incentive to put resources toward maintaining and improving religious sites.

Church restoration is important, given the religious make-up of the country, and has strong local support, so it’s not a lost investment completely.

It is indeed not easy to make the Philippines a faith tourism hotspot.

There will always be challenges in terms of infrastructure, human resource development and a holistic tour package that will complete the satisfaction of a tourist’s soul, body, mind and spirit.

Holy Week in the Philippines in Filipino its known as Mahal na Araw and in Spanish it is known as Semana Santa. It is a significant religious observance for the country’s Roman Catholic majority and most Protestant groups.

It begins on Palm Sunday and continues on through to Black Saturday. Many communities observe Spanish influenced Catholic rituals such as processions, that have been syncretised with elements of precolonial beliefs.

This is evident in some ritual practices not sanctioned by the universal Church and the many superstitions associated with the occasion.

The days of the Easter Triduum - Maundy Thursday until Black Saturday are considered statutory holidays.

During this period, many businesses are closed or operate on shorter hours. Local terrestrial television and most radio stations usually go off the air.

While others such as stations owned by various denominations cut their broadcasting hours and feature religious or inspirational programming, as well as news coverage of various services and rites.

Cable television channels in the Philippines, however, continue to broadcast their normal programming.

On Palm Sunday pr Branch Sunday, worshipers bear ornately woven palm fronds to church for blessing by the priest before or after Mass.

Many Filipinos then bring the fronds home and place these on doors, lintels or windows, in the belief that the blessed palms considered by the Church as sacramentals can ward off demons and avert lightning.

Some places hold a procession into the church before the service, a common starting point being an ermita/visita or chapel of ease, several blocks away.

The presiding priest either walks the route or, in imitation of Jesus’ triumphal entry, is led on horseback to the church. Sometimes a statue of Christ riding a donkey known as the Humenta is used instead.

Whether a statue or the priest is used for the procession, a custom in some parts is for women to cover the route with special, sometimes heirloom cloths or aprons known as tapis or wraparound.

This is to recall how the excited Jerusalemites spread their cloaks before Christ as he entered the city.

Upon reaching the church or some other designated spot, children dressed as angels sing the day’s antiphon, Hosanna Filio David or Hosanna to the Son of David in Latin or the vernacular, and set to traditional hymn tunes.

The blessing of palms and the intonation of the antiphon often occurs in the church’s parvise, its parking lot, or the town plaza which is usually adjacent or near the church in most Philippine settlements.

Before the Second World War, the Recollect Order in Manila held its famous Procession of the Passion of Christ on Holy Monday or Lunes Santo. The most famous image was that of the purportedly miraculous Black Nazarene.

After the Recollects’ church was destroyed in the 1945 bombing of the city, only the Black Nazarene image survived and was transferred to Quiapo Church.

In the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and in the Ilocandia, as well as in Makati in Metro Manila, a long procession of the Passion of Christ is held in the evening on Holy Wednesday or Miyerkules Santo.

Except in the Bulacan towns of Baliuag and Pulilan, the Passion tableaux are excluded from the Good Friday afternoon procession.

Maundy Thursday or Huwebes Santo is a public holiday, and marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum.

Prior to reforms in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the Procession of the Passion of Christ was held on Maundy Thursday.

This was later transferred to Holy Wednesday for Latin Rite Catholics, with the Philippine Independent Church retaining the Maundy Thursday date.

Among the most famous processions of the Philippine Independent Church are those of Concepcion, Malabon, Santa Cruz and Paete, Laguna.

The first rite of the day is the Chrism Mass, in which parishioners join their parish priest for morning Mass in the cathedral, especially in the large dioceses and archdioceses.

Many priests consider this to be the day when they renew their priestly vows. This Mass, over which presided by the bishop of the diocese, is when the Chrism, oil of catechumens and the oil for the sick are consecrated after the homily.

Priests bring the oils to their respective parishes after the service and store these for future use.

The main observance of the day is the last Mass before Easter, the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.

This usually includes a re-enactment of the Washing of the Feet of the Twelve Apostles, and is followed by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, which is placed in the Altar of Repose.

Churches remain open until midnight for those who want to venerate the Blessed Sacrament, with others going to one of several priests on standby to confess their sins.

One of the most important Holy Week traditions in the Philippines is the Visita Iglesia which in Spanish means church visit, also known as the Seven Churches Visitation.

Throughout the day, worshipers pray the Stations of the Cross inside or outside the church, while at night after services, the faithful may also pray before the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of Repose.

Good Friday, or Biyernes Santo is the second public holiday of the week.

It is observed with solemn street processions, the Way of the Cross, the commemoration of Jesus' Seven Last Words or Siete Palabras and the Senakulo, which in some places has already begun on Palm Sunday.

Mass is not celebrated during this day but the people gather at the church for the Veneration of Cross and the Mass of the Presanctified.

The service begins at three o’clock in the afternoon, the moment Jesus is said to have died.

This Mass has no Anaphora or liturgy, as the Communion given to congregants was already consecrated the day before at the Mass of the Lord's Supper.

In some communities, most famously in the province of Pampanga, the processions include devotees who self-flagellate and sometimes even have themselves nailed to crosses as expressions of penance, in fulfilment of a vow, or in thanksgiving for a prayer granted.

The pabasa, or continuous chanting of the Pasyon the Filipino epic narrative of Christ's life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection, usually concludes on this day.

Television and radio stations also air Siete Palabras services from large churches in Manila, usually beginning at noon.

The usual highlight of Good Friday is the Santo Entierro or holy interment, which is both the name of the rite itself and of the statue of the dead Christ used in it.

Comparable to the Eastern Orthodox practice of processing the epitaphios, the calandra or bier carrying the Santo Entierro is brought around town, normally followed by images of saints connected to the Passion narrative such as Peter and John the Evangelist.

Tradition dictates that the image of the Virgin Mary, dressed in black and gold as the mourning Mater Dolorosa, is always the final image in the procession.

Some places accord the Santo Entierro traditional, pre-Christian funeral rites such as washing the corpse, laying the body in state, or seating it in a funerary chair.

In Paete, Laguna the icon of the Santo Entierro is smoked over burning lansones peelings: during the procession, the calandra makes several stops, and each time is placed over the burning peelings.

At each pause, a crier turns towards the bier and shouts, Senor Misericordia, Senor or Lord Mercy, Lord, to which the congregation responds, Misericordia, Senor or Mercy, Lord.

In Alimodian, Iloilo the Santo Entierro is interred – not by the altar as is custom – but at the door of the parish church to enable veneration, usually by kissing the icon's feet.

There is also a large crucifix before the altar for people to venerate and kiss.

At night young girls, in costumes and bearing lit candles, walk barefoot with the Mater Dolorosa in a second procession around the town square.

The maidens meditate and mourn, reenacting the burial that Christ's female disciples gave him.

Among the famous calandaras of the Santo Entierro can be seen in Agoo, Bacolor, Baliwag, Guagua, Molo, Iloilo, Paete, San Pablo, Sasmuan, Silay, and Vigan.

Some are centuries old and were commissioned from the famous talleres or studios of the santeros Asuncion and Maximo Vicente.

Several taboos are customarily observed on this day, such as an avoidance of excessive noisemaking, and in older times bathing except for health reasons.

The prohibitions are usually effective after 15:00 PHT, the hour of Christ’s death according to scripture, and begins a period of ritual mourning.

Children, in particular, were traditionally discouraged from outdoor play, with elders cautioning that since God is dead, evil spirits are freely roaming the earth and ready to harm people.

The ritual mourning and generally somber mood attached to this day gave rise to the Tagalog idiom Mukha kang Biyernes Santo.

Translating to You’ve a face like Good Friday, it refers to a sad person's demeanor resembling that of the suffering Christ.

Black Saturday or Holy Saturday also known as Sabado de Gloria is the third and final public holiday of the week.

The day is legally and colloquially termed in English as Black given the colour's role in mourning.

The term Sabado de Gloria which is Spanish for Gloria Saturday refers to the return of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo during the Easter Vigil held on this day. The hymn is absent throughout Lent except on solemnities and Maundy Thursday.

The ritual mourning for the dead Christ continues, albeit at a lesser intensity. Traditional taboos from the previous day, such as merrymaking and the consumption of meat, are carried over from the day before or sometimes broken.

This includes swimming in a river or the sea, as superstitions warned against bathing on Good Friday afternoon.

Most commercial establishments operate on shorter hours, with smaller enterprises remaining closed until Easter or Easter Monday in many areas, but some return to normal in major metropolitan areas.

Television and radio stations broadcast on shorter hours with special programming, or remain off-air.

Easter or Linggo ng Pagkabuhay is marked with joyous celebrations, the first being the pre-dawn rite called Salubong in Filipino and Sugat in Cebuano and Hiligaynon, both calques of the rite’s Spanish name Encuentro, meeting.

The rite is customarily performed in the early hours of Easter before the first Mass, though it may also be done immediately after the Easter Vigil if it takes place around midnight.

The ritual is meant to depict the apocryphal reunion of Christ and his Mother, the Virgin Mary, after the Resurrection.

Statues of both are borne in two separate processions that converge at a designated area called a Galilea or Galilee, which is often an open space with a purpose-built scaffold permanent or otherwise near the church.

Depending on the size and wealth of the congregation, the processions include statues of any or all the Myrrh bearers, particularly the Three Marys - Mary, mother of James, Mary Magdalene, and Mary Salome, along with Peter and John the Evangelist.

By custom, the two processions are sex-segregated, with male worshipers following the Risen Christ, twelve men in costume as the Apostles, and icons of male saints, while female congregants accompany icons of the Virgin Mary and female saints.

Those in the procession hold lit tapers, and often recite the rosary as a brass band plays hymns and joyful music.

The icon of the Virgin Mary, still called the Mater Dolorosa, is clothed or draped in a black veil or lambong to show her bereavement.

An angel, often a small girl in costume stands at or is suspended in mid-air from the Galilea.

From this lofty perch, the angel chants the Regina Coeli in Latin or in the vernacular, sometimes accompanied by similarly dressed schoolchildren representing the angelic choirs.

The high point is when the principal angel dramatically removes the veil from the Virgin’s icon, signalling the abrupt end to her grieving and the period of mourning.

The veil may simply be pulled off the statue, or tied to balloons or doves that are released into the dawn sky.

The sorrowing Virgin is thus ritually transformed into Nuestra Senora de Alegria or Our Lady of Joy; in celebratory veneration, the angels throw flower petals at the icons of the rejoicing Mother and her Risen Son while confetti are thrown into both images.

The moment is punctuated by bells pealing, brass bands playing, and fireworks. The reunited congregation then gathers for the first Mass of Easter in the church.

In some parishes, this rite is held earlier at midnight on Easter Sunday immediately following the Easter Vigil proper, but with the same format.

Cities and towns with popular Holy Week celebrations In The Philippines:

- Agoo, La Union

- Arevalo, Iloilo City

- Baliuag, Bulacan

- Bustos, Bulacan

- Bantayan Island, Cebu

- Batangas City

- Binangonan, Rizal

- Betis, Guagua

- Candaba Pampanga

- Concepcion Malabon

- Dagupan Pangsinan

- Guagua, Pampanga

- Lingayen, Pangasinan

- Lipa City Batangas

- Makati

- Marikina

- Marilao, Bulacan

- Marinduque

- Morong, Rizal

- Meycauayan, Bulacan

- Paete, Laguna

- Pasig City

- Santa Maria, Bulacan

- Santa Rita, Pampanga

- San Pablo, Laguna

- Sasmuan, Pampanga

- Silay City

- Vigan, Ilocos Sur

- Tondo, Manila

Caridad or Pakaridad is a way of giving or sharing food especially ginataan or suman to the neighbors or to the local church or chapel to be given to the crowds of people who attend the Good Friday procession.

A complimentary drink of water is also given by local residents living along the processional route.

The Black Nazarene icon, brought from Mexico during the Galleon Trade era, is enshrined in Quiapo Church, and is considered miraculous by devotees is brought out for procession every Good Friday.

The statue is borne on the shoulders of male devotees in a slow, difficult procession around the narrow streets of the district, a score of men struggle to keep the image moving on.

Thousands more try to muscle their way to touch the Nazarene as if carried by a powerful tide in an ocean of humanity.

Amulet hunting. It is a folk belief that anting-anting the traditional amulets are especially potent if collected, made, or imbued with power on Good Friday.

In Sipalay, Negros Occidental many albularyo or witch doctors search for anting-anting in unexplored caves.

Procession of Statues. On Holy Wednesday, a procession is held with Paete's 53 images of Christ's life and death.

The procession goes through the town's narrow streets en route to the church. It stops three times to give way to the Salubong or meeting which depicts three scenes of Jesus' passion and in which Paete's moving saints take part.

These are the meeting of Christ and Mary, held at the church patio, the wiping of Jesus' face by Veronica, which takes place at Plaza Edesan and finally, the encounter between Mary and Veronica where the latter shows the miraculous imprints of Christ's face on her cloth. This is held at the town plaza

In San Pablo, the Good Friday procession consists of huge, century-old statues bedecked in fresh flowers. In the old times, the famous processions were that of Saint Bartholomew of Malabon, Binan, Laguna, Pateros and Tuguegaro.

Unfortunately, the Holy Week Images from Cagayan were destroyed by the war and similarly the Tres Caidas of Binan. In the seventies, the Holy Week Procession of Malabon consisted of 30 silver carrozas.

The highlight was the Tres Caidas either from Talleres Maximo or Asuncion. It no longer join the procession of Good Friday.

The most famous procession in Manila during the inter war period was of Santa Cruz. Almost all images were obliterated during the aerial-bombardment of Manila

Senakulo. Many towns have their own versions of the Senakulo, using traditional scripts that are decades or centuries old.

A version is held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, sponsored by the Department of Tourism. Popular film and televisions stars often join the cast of the play.

In Taguig, they popularize the modern version of Jesus Christ Superstar reshown at the Fort Santiago Amphitheater for the benefit of Manilenos.

In Mexico, Pampanga and Dinalupihan, Bataan, the actor portraying Jesus has been actually nailed to the cross to simulate Christ's passion as best and as painfully possible.

Similar shows are also held in Makati and in the Santa Ana District of Manila.

Pagtaltal sa Jordan. In the Visayas, the passion play Ang Pagtaltal sa Jordan is performed in Jordan, Guimaras and in Barotac Viejo, Iloilo every Good Friday.

In recent years, the play's audience included locals as well as people from the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Canada, and other countries.

Salubung in Pasig. The famous Salubong of Pasig Immaculate Church.

Easter Sunday Procession of Pasig iss the most beautiful one. Since Pasig is older than the other towns of the former Province of Tondo, it was suggested, Makati, Paranaque and other Augustinian Towns copied their traditions from Pasig.

Two processions emerged from the church and met in front of the Plaza. Mother and Son greeted each other to the tune of Regina Coeli.

Saboy. The Saboy is a traditional dance performed by girls on Easter Sunday in Las Pinas, Metro Manila. The dance is divided into two parts, the mourning section and the joyful version.

The first dancer is the Salubong Angel, who often has large wings and bears a black veil. Second are the Hosanna Angels dressed in white, who usually hold baskets with rose petals and comprise a majority of the dancers.

Third are the Tres Marias or Three Marys, three older girls dressed in pink and also bearing baskets. Last are the blue-clad Kapitana or Captainess and Tinyentera or Female Lieutenant.

The Kapitana can be distinguished by the large banner she waves, while the Tinyentera swings a thurible.

Sayaw ng Pagbati. The Salubong is also held in Paranaque City, but with the Mass followed by different renditions of the Sayaw ng Pagbati or Dance at the Greeting.

San Pablo City. Celebrities and movie stars from Manila and neighboring provinces join the procession organized by Don Ado Escudero of Villa Escudero.

Moriones Festival. The Moriones Festival in the island province of Marinduque commemorates the story of the Roman centurion, Longinus or San Longhino and his legendary conversion at the foot of the cross.

The townsfolk of Boac and Mogpog are dressed in masks and helmets or moriones, depicting Roman soldiers, and unusually for the country, observe Holy Week in a much more joyous manner.

The Moriones is a lenten rites held on Holy Week on the island of Marinduque, Philippines. The Moriones are men and women in costumes and masks replicating the garb of biblical Roman soldiers as interpreted by local folks.

The Moriones or Moryonan tradition has inspired the creation of other festivals in the Philippines where cultural practices or folk history is turned into street festivals.

It is a colorful festival celebrated on the island of Marinduque in the Philippines. The participants use morion masks to depict the Roman soldiers and Syrian mercenaries within the story of the Passion of the Christ.

The mask was named after the 16th and 17th century Morion helmet. The Moriones refers to the masked and costumed penitents who march around the town for seven days searching for Longinus.

Morions roam the streets in town from Holy Monday to Easter Sunday scaring the kids, or engaging in antics or surprises to draw attention.

This is a folk-religious festival that re-enacts the story of Saint Longinus, a Roman centurion who was blind in one eye.

The festival is characterized by colorful Roman costumes, painted masks and helmets, and brightly colored tunics.

The towns of Boac, Gasan, Santa Cruz, Buenavista and Mogpog in the island of Marinduque become one gigantic stage.

The observances form part of the Lenten celebrations of Marinduque. The various towns also hold the unique tradition of the pabasa or the recitation of Christ's passion in verse.

Then at three o'clock on Good Friday afternoon, the Santo Sepulcro is observed, whereby old women exchange verses based on the Bible as they stand in wake of the dead Christ.

One of the highlights of this festival is the Via Crucis. A re-enactment of the suffering of Christ on his way to the calvary.

Men inflict suffering upon themselves by whipping their backs, carrying a wooden cross and sometimes even crucifixion.

They see this act as their form of atonement for their sins. This weeklong celebration starts on Holy Monday and ends on Easter Sunday.

The term Moriones was concocted by the media in the 60s, but local inhabitants have kept the original term, Moryonan.

Many practitioners are farmers and fishermen who engage in this age-old tradition as a vow of penance or thanksgiving. Legend has it that Longinus pierced the side of the crucified Christ.

The blood that spurted forth touched his blind eye and fully restored his sight. This miracle converted Longinus to Christianity and earned the ire of his fellow centurions.

The re-enactment reaches its climax when Longinus is caught and beheaded.

In Valencia, Spain there is a similar celebration called Festival de Moros y Cristianos or Moors and Christians Festival. It is almost certain that the word Moriones was derived from Moros.

Another possible derivation is from the Spanish word murio from the verb morir meaning died. The origin of the festival is traced to Mogpog and the year 1887 when the parish priest of said town, Fr. Dionisio Santiago, organized it for the first time.



Tourism Observer

BOSNIA: Medjugorje Insists Virgin Mary Appears, Despite Pope's Doubt

Pope Francis is dismissive of claims that the Virgin Mary appears daily in Medjugorje, but Danielle Pitau is convinced that her pilgrimage to the small Bosnian town cured her of cancer.

"Whoever tells me that nothing happens in Medjugorje, I tell them to come here and try it," the 72-year-old Belgian woman said.

She said that "a warmth did not stop rising" inside her stomach on her first visit to the town 11 years ago, which followed surgery on a bladder tumour and a pessimistic diagnosis from doctors.

In June 1981, six Bosnian teenagers said they had witnessed the appearance of the Virgin in the southern town near the Croatian border.

She continues to "appear" to three of them daily, and to the other three once a year.

With some of them now living between Medjugorje, Italy and the United States, they proclaim themselves "seers" and say the Virgin is transmitting them messages, which they publish for the edification of believers on the multi-language website, medjugorje.hr.

In a rare interview to local media, one of the self-declared seers, Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic, described Mary's visitations, which occur "every day at 6:40 pm".

"Before her arrival, a light appears three times. This is the sign that she is coming."

The Virgin "has a grey dress, a white veil, a crown of stars, blue eyes, black hair, pinkish cheeks. She is floating on a grey cloud and does not step on the ground," said Ivankovic-Mijatovic, now 52.

In early March, Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo, another one of the six "seers", transmitted a message from the Virgin calling on people to "live with love for the word of (her) Son, so that the world can be different".

Every year, some 2.5 million pilgrims visit Medjugorje, according to Polish archbishop Henryk Hoser. Many of those descend in June to mark the 1981 visions.

In February Hoser was sent by the Vatican to analyse their "needs" and "acquire a deeper knowledge of the pastoral situation".

Home to around 2,300 people, who are mostly ethnic Croat Roman Catholics, the town is nestled among hills, including the mount on which the Virgin is said to appear.

Pilgrims arrive by the coach-load and linger in front of the twin-towered Saint Jacob's Church, while others wander between religious souvenir shops, guesthouses, hotels and restaurants.

Some climb the rocky hill known for the apparitions, from which a white stone statue of the Virgin looks over the town. Visions have also been reported in other locations.

Medjugorje has prospered through its reputation for miracles, with its population more than doubling since 1991 -- just before the start of the ethnic conflict that devastated Bosnia, which remains largely impoverished.

But it is difficult to estimate how much wealth has been generated.

Local business owners are suspected of not reporting accurate visitor numbers for tax reasons, despite efforts to crack down on tax evasion in 2013 and 2016.

According to local media reports, the guesthouse owned by one of the "seers" was targeted in particular.

"From a religious point of view Medjugorje is very fertile land," Hoser said cautiously in April, adding that the work of the parish, managed by Franciscan priests, was "in line with new evangelisation".

But in the nearby town of Mostar, Bishop Ratko Peric said Medjugorje's fame was based on a falsehood.

"These are not authentic appearances of the Virgin Mary," he said in February, dismissing the 47,000 alleged apparitions since June 1981.

The Vatican, which is not opposed to the pilgrimages, has not revealed the conclusion of an enquiry conducted between 2010 and 2014 into the Medjugorje sightings.

But recent irony-tinged declarations from Pope Francis suggest the probe threw up doubts over the issue.

The pontiff said earlier this month that the woman, whom the seers say they see, "is not the mother of Jesus".

"But it is obvious, who thinks the Virgin would say: 'Come to this place tomorrow at this time and I'll give a message to a seer'?" the pontiff said.

However he was more circumspect about the 1981 visions, which he didn't immediately reject.

"On the original apparitions, the ones the children had, the enquiry says, more or less, that investigations need to continue," he said.

The Pope's comments were not well received in Medjugorje, where one local priest, who asked to remain anonymous, said they "create trouble".

He should have looked deeply into his soul to know whether such a declaration would do good or bad, said another Bosnian believer, who also refused to give his name.

Julita Buzekova, a 46-year-old Polish pilgrim, said many people continued to visit the site, believing it a special place.

The pope will eventually accept it, she said, on her way up the hill.

Since June is the month when many believers visit Medjugorje, it is still too early to assess the impact of the Pope's scepticism.

The church will always be full. But things are not so good as far as tourism is concerned, after an excellent period from 2005 to 2008, said Mladen, a restaurant waiter, who blamed the economic crisis for the decline.

Father Francesco, 53, brings several groups of pilgrims every year from Paris.

It is a place of grace, of conversion. Here, Mary is going to unite Catholics, Orthodox people and Muslims, he said.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Pilgrimage Attracts Thousands Of Visitors

Thousands of the catholic faithful continue to arrive at the Basilica Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higuey (east) to attend religious activities, while the authorities adopted an array of traffic safety measures to reduce the risk of accidents.

President Danilo Medina and a group of government officials are scheduled to attend the mass starting 10am and a luncheon at noon.

Catholics from across the country and abroad participate in the various masses in Spanish and Creole, and other religious activities, as thousands visit the cathedral to fulfill some kind of promise of offerings to the Virgin Mary, known as the "Spiritual Mother of the Dominican People."

Tourists Flood Medjugorje In Bosnia As Virgin Mary Appears To Thousands

Mary barely speaks in the New Testament, but her image and legacy are found and celebrated around the world.

As the sun sets in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina—a hot spot for Virgin Mary sightings—devotees of diverse faiths and nationalities gather to pray.

It’s apparition time: 5:40 p.m. In a small Roman Catholic chapel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the village of Medjugorje, Ivan Dragicevic walks down the aisle, kneels in front of the altar, bows his head for a moment, and then, smiling, lifts his gaze heavenward. He begins to whisper, listens intently, whispers again, and doesn’t blink for ten minutes. His daily conversation with the Virgin Mary has begun.

Dragicevic was one of six poor shepherd children who first reported visions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. She identified herself to the four girls and two boys as the “Queen of Peace” and handed down the first of thousands of messages admonishing the faithful to pray more often and asking sinners to repent.

Dragicevic was 16 years old, and Medjugorje, then in communist-controlled Yugoslavia, had yet to emerge as a hub of miracle cures and spiritual conversions, attracting 30 million pilgrims during the past three decades.

In Medjugorje, with a group of Americans, mostly hockey dads from the Boston area, plus two men and two women with stage 4 cancer. We’re led by 59-year-old Arthur Boyle, a father of 13, who first came here on Labor Day weekend in 2000, riddled with cancer and given months to live. He felt broken and dejected and wouldn’t have made the trip had not two friends forced him into it. But that first night, after he went to confession at St. James the Apostle church, psychological relief came rapidly.

“The anxiety and depression were gone,” he told me. “You know when you’re carrying someone on your shoulders in a swimming pool water fight—they come off, and you feel light and free? I was like, Wait a minute, what just happened to me? Why is that?”

The next morning, with his friends Rob and Kevin, he met another of the “visionaries,” Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic, in a jewelry shop and asked for her help. Gripping his head with one hand, she appealed to the Virgin Mary to ask God to cure him. Boyle said he experienced an unusual sensation right there in the store. “She starts to pray over me. Rob and Kevin put their hands on me, and the heat that went through my body from her praying was causing them to sweat.”

Back in Boston a week later, a CT scan at Massachusetts General Hospital revealed that his tumors had shrunk to almost nothing.

Since then, Boyle has been back to Medjugorje 13 times. “I’m a regular guy,” he said. “I like to play hockey and drink beer. I play golf.” But, he continued, “I had to change things in my life.” Today, Boyle said, he’s become “a sort of mouthpiece for Jesus Christ’s healing power and of course the Mother and the power of her intercession.”

Mary is a magnet for young and old. On August 12, during a Mass celebrating her assumption into heaven, Roman Catholic youths guard a life-size figure in Kalwaria Pacławska, Poland. The Feast of the Assumption is a weeklong festival here.

Praying for the Virgin Mary’s intercession and being devoted to her are a global phenomenon. The notion of Mary as intercessor with Jesus begins with the miracle of the wine at the wedding at Cana, when, according to the Gospel of John, she tells him, “They have no wine,” thus prompting his first miracle. It was in A.D. 431, at the Third Ecumenical Council, in Ephesus, that she was officially named Theotokos, Bearer of God. Since then no other woman has been as exalted as Mary. As a universal symbol of maternal love, as well as of suffering and sacrifice, Mary is often the touchstone of our longing for meaning, a more accessible link to the supernatural than formal church teachings. Her mantle offers both security and protection. Pope Francis, when once asked what Mary meant to him, answered, “She is my mamá.”

Her reported appearances, visions experienced often by very poor children living in remote or conflict-wracked areas, have intensified her mystery and aura. And when the children can’t be shaken from their stories—especially if the accounts are accompanied by inexplicable “signs” such as spinning suns or gushing springs—her wonder grows.

Mary is everywhere: Marigolds are named for her. Hail Mary passes save football games. The image in Mexico of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most reproduced female likenesses ever. Mary draws millions each year to shrines such as Fátima, in Portugal, and Knock, in Ireland, sustaining religious tourism estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year and providing thousands of jobs. She inspired the creation of many great works of art and architecture (Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” Notre Dame Cathedral), as well as poetry, liturgy, and music (Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin). And she is the spiritual confidante of billions of people, no matter how isolated or forgotten.

Muslims as well as Christians consider her to be holy above all women, and her name “Maryam” appears more often in the Koran than “Mary” does in the Bible. In the New Testament Mary speaks only four times, beginning with the Annunciation, when, according to Luke’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel appears to her and says she will bear “the Son of the Most High.” Mary answers, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” Her only extended speech, also in Luke, is the lyrical Magnificat, uttered in early pregnancy: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

Indeed they have.

Yet clues about her life are elusive. Scholars of Mary must take what they can from Hebrew Scriptures, first-century Mediterranean texts, the New Testament, and archaeological digs.

Anna Pidlisna, 32, of Ukraine, says she came to Medjugorje—where plaster statues can fetch about 30 euros apiece—after receiving a vision of Mary. Apparitions aren’t the only Marian sign; many say they’ve seen a “spinning sun.” Physicist Artur Wirowski has an earthly explanation: It can occur when sunlight reflects and refracts charged ice crystals vibrating in sync within the clouds.

The Evangelists were writing 40 to 65 years after Christ’s death and were not biographers, says Father Bertrand Buby, the author of a three-volume study, Mary of Galilee, and a distinguished member of the faculty in the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, in Ohio. “So don’t expect them to have all the elements about Mary. Her life is picked up from hearsay.”

Some of the latest Mary scholarship focuses on her as a Jewish mother. María Enriqueta García, in her sacred theology dissertation at the Marian Institute, explains that Mary brings us to Jesus, who is the light of the world, just as Jewish mothers light the Shabbat candles. “We see the relationship of Mary with us isn’t just any relationship—it’s sacred.”

During the first millennium, as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and began spreading into Europe, Mary typically was portrayed as an imperial figure, the equal of emperors, dressed in royal purple and gold. In the second millennium, beginning in the 12th century, says medieval historian Miri Rubin of Queen Mary University of London, “she underwent a dramatic shift,” evolving into a more accessible, kinder, gentler maternal figure. She served as a substitute mother in monasteries and convents, which novices often entered at a tender age. “A mother’s love,” Rubin says, “came to express the core of the religious story.”

Because so little is known of Mary from Scripture, “you can project on her whatever cultural values you have,” says Amy-Jill Levine, a professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University. “A cultural confection,” according to Rubin. Levine adds, “She can be the grieving mother, the young virgin, the goddess figure. Just as Jesus is the ideal man, Mary is the ideal woman.”

During the Reformation (1517-1648), the idea of Mary as intercessor fell out of favor with Protestants, who advocated going straight to God in prayer. But Mary gained millions of new Catholic followers with the Spanish conquest in the New World in the early 1500s—and, more recently, in Africa as Christianity has spread there.

Sister Marzena Michalczyck, 31, a nun from Kraków, Poland, pauses to pray during her weeklong walk to Częstochowa. Millions of pilgrims trek there to see the Black Madonna, an icon believed to bestow miracles upon the faithful.
The Bible says she lived in Nazareth when Romans had control over the Jewish territory. After Mary became pregnant, her betrothed, Joseph, a carpenter, considered quietly leaving her until an angel came to him in a dream and told him not to. The birth of Jesus is mentioned in just two Gospels, Luke and Matthew. Mark and John refer to Jesus’ mother several times.

Kibeho, a small town in southern Rwanda, is remembered as the place where the Virgin Mary appeared to three young girls and foretold of the blood and horror of the genocide that would traumatize the country in 1994, when the majority Hutu attacked the minority Tutsi and in three months more than 800,000 people were slaughtered.

In March 1982 the local bishop asked Venant Ntabomvura, a doctor, to go to a girls boarding school on a hillside in Kibeho. He was to investigate three students who had reported visions and conversations with the Virgin Mary. Ntabomvura, a kindly ear, nose, and throat specialist who, at 89, is still practicing, says Alphonsine Mumureke had first told of visits by apparitions the previous November. When they occurred, he says, “she was talking to someone exactly as if she were talking on the phone.”

Mary appeared first to Alphonsine, then to Anathalie Mukamazimpaka, followed by Marie Claire Mukangango. The girls said they spent countless hours in conversations with the Virgin, who called herself Nyina wa Jambo, Mother of the Word. Mary spoke to the girls so often that they called her Mama.

I found Anathalie at dusk one evening in her modest home near her old school, surrounded by rosaries and statues of the Virgin.

A boy receives Communion at the Jasna Góra Monastery, in Częstochowa, Poland. The Black Madonna—a revered painting of a dark-skinned Virgin Mary and Child Jesus, said to be the work of St. Luke—is housed in this sanctuary.

“The first time she appeared,” Anathalie said, “I was reciting the rosary, and she called me by my name. I heard her say, ‘Nathalie, my child.’ She looked very beautiful indeed, between 20 and 30 years old. She spoke in Kinyarwanda in a very calm and soft voice. She was in a blue veil and white dress. She never told me why she chose me. She said she appears to anyone she wants, anytime she wants, anywhere she wants.” She never mentioned any particular religion, Anathalie said. “She only asks us to love her as much as she loves us.”

Mary’s dire prophecy came on a day in 1982 everyone expected to be especially happy: August 15, the Feast of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Ntabomvura was there, and Gaspard Garuka, who lived nearby. The girls were crying because, they reported, the Virgin was in tears too, Garuka says. He remembers that Alphonsine “fell down many times, because what she watched was very terrible. One time she even asked, ‘Please, hide this from my eyes.’”

Anathalie said that what Mary predicted “is exactly what I saw” during the genocide 12 years later. “People killing others using spears, burning fire, people’s skulls and heads cut off. I saw mass graves surrounded by so much darkness, blood running all over like rivers. All of this had been predicted.” Anathalie was able to flee Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and then Kenya. Alphonsine became a monastic sister in Italy. Marie Claire was killed in the genocide. On June 29, 2001, nearly 20 years after Alphonsine had first reported her apparition, Rwanda’s Bishop Augustin Misago and the Vatican declared that, yes, the Virgin Mary had appeared at Kibeho.

In Rutka, Poland, Anna Bondaruk, 84, prays with Marek Włodzimirow, 38, who has come to her for spiritual healing. Bondaruk says she has a direct connection to Mary that allows her to heal people.

Michael O’Neill, 39, a Stanford University graduate in mechanical engineering and product design, is the Virgin Mary’s big data numbers cruncher. On his website, MiracleHunter.com, he has codified every known apparition of Mary back to A.D. 40. Systematic investigation and documentation of supernatural occurrences began with the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church’s ecumenical reaction to the Reformation, more than 450 years ago. Of the 2,000 apparitions reported since then, Miracle Hunter cites a mere 28 as approved by local bishops, who are the first to decide whether “seers” seem plausible. Sixteen of those have been recognized by the Vatican.

O’Neill, in his newly published book, Exploring the Miraculous, details the Vatican’s painstaking process when deciding whether to endorse an apparition as miraculous—“truly extraordinary.” The “authenticity” and mental stability of the seer are prime, and anyone suspected of trying to gain fame or riches from contact with the Virgin Mary is ignored or condemned.

Medjugorje is one of some two dozen sites in wait-and-see mode for Vatican approval. The local bishops with authority over Medjugorje have never given credence to the apparitions and have been at odds with the Franciscan priests who run the parish and are staunch believers. To resolve the impasse, a Vatican commission was appointed. It concluded its work in 2014.

The Vatican would never approve an alleged apparition whose message contradicted church teachings, and the faithful aren’t required to believe in apparitions. Many, including priests, do not. “What is from Mary versus what is captured and interpreted by the seer is hard to distinguish,” says Father Johann Roten, director of research and special projects at the University of Dayton’s Marian Library, with more than a hundred thousand volumes on Mary.

Ultimately the decision is based on faith.