Fr. Diego Gonzalez, Argentine Priest

We met Fr. Diego and his group while they were staying at visionary Mirjana Soldo’s pilgrimage house. We interviewed him just before the April 2 apparition.

I am Father Diego Gonzalez, from the Messengers of Peace Community in Argentina. I am Colombian, and for 10 years, beginning when I started my formation in the seminary, I have accompanied the Latin pilgrims to Medjugorje.

We have been here for five days and have visited Apparition Hill, Cross Mountain and we are headed to where Our Lady gives her messages. It’s a path of prayer — we offer up our sufferings — and a place of interior healing.

We have had the blessing to spend time with the visionary Mirjana and her husband and hear her testimony as we are staying with her. 

We purposefully chose this time, before the apparition, to come so that we can prepare the hearts of the pilgrims so that when the day of the apparition comes they can truly receive the blessings that our God wants to pour out over us through the apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

I always say that Medjugorge is a place overflowing with prayer, which tells you this is a place where Our Lady has appeared.

Fr. diego gonzalez

Mary brings us to Jesus. She wants us to put Jesus first in our lives. To me, this is a very big blessing. I always say that Medjugorge is a place overflowing with prayer, which tells you this is a place where Our Lady has appeared.

She has been giving the grace of faith to this place since even before the apparitions. And She herself asked the town to pray and it’s a town that is very faithful. It’s a very special place where one comes.

You find out that what you thought were assurances of your beliefs are not God. You fall to pieces and you feel your heart break but it’s okay because this is your Mother’s house — the place where you cry and where you break down.

Once you break down, you realize that it was fake reassurances and this is when you can really begin to construct something new in your life, in the presence of God, taken by the hand of Jesus and Mary to carry you forward. 

That’s why for me every time I come here I get the graces from God to continue to grow in this path of sanctity. And also it’s great as a priest to hear all the peoples’ confessions. It’s truly a conversion of the heart.

~ Special thanks to Melissa Kidonakis, a member of the Apostle of Love community, who helped us with this translation. 

While we were filming the apparition we spotted Fr. Diego deep in prayer near Mirjana. Do you see him?