A Vatican delegation is to visit Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time, three months after the Pope officially lifted the ban on official church pilgrimages to the Marian sanctuary.

In a report, Vatican Radio said the delegation would be at the shrine for an early August youth festival, to be opened by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, papal vicar of the Rome diocese, and closed by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for New Evangelization, and Archbishop Jose Carballo, secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Orders. However, it added that its presence did not mean “tacit recognition” of alleged Marian apparitions at the site, which are currently undergoing separate examination and evaluation by the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, in a separate interview with Poland’s Catholic information agency, KAI, he said the centre was now an “object of special Vatican care”, and should be seen as “a living, dynamic reality, which is growing and needing accompaniment”. With over 700 vocations so far recorded and at least 22 communities now functioning permanently at Medjugorje, the shrine’s formal Church recognition was a matter of time, Archbishop Hoser added.