{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.017723577235772357, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007317073170731708, 'mean_word_length': 5.2257085020242915, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Marian Apparitions and the Yugoslav Crisis

In the chronology of events that marked the decade of crisis and breakup of Yugoslavia, the “apparition” of the Virgin Mary in Međugorje has remained largely overshadowed by symbolically more recognizable and politically more palpable historical events. My article traces the conflict potential of the events in Međugorje by analyzing their press coverage. At the beginning they were met with outright hostility, which changed in the mideighties when the Marian apparitions were officially transformed into a miracle destined to save Yugoslavia from ravaging economic crisis. However, the fact that the apparitions appeared near the site of a WWII-era massacre soon changed the whole issue into a site of contestation between Yugoslavia’s major ethnic groups, illustrating the heavy burden that the unresolved past played in the fate of Yugoslavia. Međugorje is also an example of how the already on-going conflicts in the area were nurtured by belief in supernatural miracles as well as the manipulation of the cult of dead in order to bring redemption. In the dusk of June 24, 1981, the day when the Catholic Church celebrates Saint John the Baptist, a group of four girls and two boys ranging in age from twelve to seventeen years, announced that they had seen and talked with the Virgin Mary on the Crnica Hill near Međugorje in Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. Soon after, Međugorje became one of the world’s major sites of Marian pilgrimages, second only to Lourdes and Fatima. In the chronology of events that marked the nineteen eighties as a decade of crisis and breakup for Yugoslavia, the events in Međugorje have remained largely overshadowed by symbolically more recognizable and politically more palpable historical events like Tito’s death in 1980 or the mass protests of the Kosovo Albanians earlier in 1981. The “apparition” of Gospa (as the Virgin Mary is locally called) can be and indeed was interpreted to be a largely religious phenomenon that illustrated an internal crisis within the Catholic Church. Yet, as anthropologist E.A. Hammel pleads, there are at least three levels of inquiry to be distinguished in the Međugorje events – one that focuses on the apparition itself, one that looks at people’s sighting, and one that explores the differing perceptions of these events (2000: 20). This article hopes to contribute to the study of Međugorje’s conflict potential within the context of the Yugoslav crisis in the 1980s by analyzing the various perceptions of the alleged apparitions and their transformation over time, 2 Marian Apparitions and the Yugoslav Crisis without considering the actual veracity of the apparitions or people’s sighting. The aim of this analysis is threefold. First, I want to show how the apparitions of Međugorje “reintroduced” religion in a major way into Yugoslav society in the 1980s. For almost four decades, Yugoslavia’s authorities judged religious feelings and manifestations as irrational, foreign, and hostile throwbacks historically destined for extinction. At first, the Međugorje Virgin met a similar fate and was treated as the new “enemy,” since the ruling Communist regime had no other response to a revival of religion but to repress it. However, because the regime’s authority was waning, caused by its inability to solve a host of political and economic problems and its continued insistence on out-dated ideological cliches, it could do little to stem the nascent popular interest in religion. After attempts at repression failed to stop further “apparitions” and deter many thousands of worshippers from visiting Međugorje, the authorities belatedly changed their anti-religious attitude in the 1980s and endorsed a “vision” of their own: the apparition site was promoted as a tourist destination that would miraculously solve the Yugoslav economic crisis. My second aim is to show that events in and around Međugorje served as one of the principal catalysts in the process of nationalist resurgence in Yugoslavia. Ethnic and religious homogenization processes were reinvigorated in the 1980s not only by nationalist myths and propaganda, but also a range of beliefs in supernatural miracles, redemption and redeemers, with Međugorje featuring most prominently among the Catholic Croats. On the other side, the proximity of the apparition site to a mass grave of Serbs massacred by Croatian fascist ustasas during World War Two motivated Serbian historians and the Serbian Orthodox Church to claim that the whole affair was directed against Serbs. Thus, Međugorje also acquired a role in the victimization rhetoric that was a moving force and justification behind the resurgence of Serbian nationalism. My final goal is to contribute to the understanding of factors that caused the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the eruption of violence that ensued. I focus on the controversies over the Međugorje apparitions in order to furnish a case-study of how the numerous factors deemed detrimental to Yugoslavia’s stability and existence intersected. At the outset, the failure of the Yugoslav state and its ruling party to respond adequately to the challenge posed by Međugorje exposed their vulnerability. Later, Međugorje offered churches and “independent” intellectuals an issue with which to promote their nationalist agenda and open up historical events to new interpretations that challenged the position of the Yugoslav authorities. I will attempt to illustrate this grossly condensed view of the multitude of implications of Međugorje’s apparitions by examining the coverage they received in the press. More than any other medium, the press in Yugoslavia had a lasting influence on public opinion. This was because the government’s control over how information was collected and distributed was liberalized in the 1960s and became decentralized to the republic level rather than centrally structured, as in the Soviet Union (Robinson 1977). Nevertheless, the press reflected the basic orientation of the ruling party in each of Yugoslavia’s republics and often revealed competing political ideas and trends. In this decentralized country,