On Monday, Pope Leo the Fourteenth invited the young pilgrims gathered from all over the world at Mladifest in Medjugorje to choose encounters with God, friends and family instead of artificial intelligence algorithms.
The message was read at the beginning of the festival, which gathers tens of thousands of young people from around 80 countries of the world, by the apostolic visitor for Medjugorje, Archbishop Aldo Kavalji.
“You know very well that we live in an increasingly digital world where artificial intelligence and technology offer us countless opportunities. Remember: no algorithm can replace a hug, a look, a true encounter, both with God and with our friends and our family,” the Pope said in his message to young people.
He invited them to be open to meeting others in Medjugorje, regardless of cultural and linguistic differences.
The five-day event Mladifest is an annual Catholic gathering of young people that includes, among other things, prayers, masses, processions, as well as a climb to Križevac hill.
Last year, the Holy See acknowledged the numerous positive fruits that are happening in Medjugorje, but did not confirm the supernatural nature of the apparitions, that is, the phenomenon associated with the visionaries’ claims that Our Lady appears to them there and sends messages.
Since then, the number of believers who come to this world-famous Catholic pilgrimage center in BiH has increased.
The Medjugorje phenomenon refers to the claims of six visionaries who, since 1981, have claimed that Our Lady appeared to them.
