About Caritas of Birmingham
When Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic Lunetti first visited Caritas of Birmingham in 1988, an unexpected and wonderful event took place: the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her and gave her wisdom to share with her hosts and all believers. For Marija, apparitions of Our Lady were nothing new. She was one of a half-dozen faithful to whom Our Lady had been appearing regularly since 1981 in the town of Medjugorje, in what was known as Yugoslavia and is now called Bosnia-Herzegovina. Because of the apparitions, the town attracted pilgrims from around the world; among them, in July 1986, was Birmingham, Alabama, resident Terry Colafrancesco. His life was changed by the experience. Colafrancesco, having already established Caritas of Birmingham, in Shelby County, Alabama before his pilgrimage to Medjugorje for the purpose of spreading the faith, returned from Medjugorje and changed the focus of Caritas of Birmingham to solely relay the messages from Our Lady to the faithful.
The mission of Caritas of Birmingham was, and remains, straightforward: to get the news from Medjugorje into the hands of the people as quickly as possible. This includes the actual messages from Our Lady as reported by the visionaries, as well as the testimonies of many participants and histories of the apparitions and their impact on the world. In January 1987 the first newsletter was produced and distributed free to a mailing list of 200, developed primarily from the other pilgrims with whom Colafrancesco visited Medjugorje; within 5 months, the mailing list had grown to 6,000, strictly by word of mouth. Within four years, more than 100,000 people had requested the newsletter.
By the time Marija Lunetti visited Caritas of Birmingham in December of 1988, it already had become a major source of information about Medjugorje for an ever-growing community of faith. It distributes its materials for free, or as close to cost as possible. Costs are kept down by producing most of the material on-site with state-of-the-art equipment donated by supporters and operated by volunteers, the Community of Caritas, which is also a fully functional agrarian subsistence community, producing as much of their own food as possible. Thus, donations to Caritas of Birmingham can be dedicated almost exclusively to acquiring the supplies necessary to keep getting the word out.
The mission of Caritas of Birmingham was, and remains, straightforward: to get the news from Medjugorje into the hands of the people as quickly as possible. This includes the actual messages from Our Lady as reported by the visionaries, as well as the testimonies of many participants and histories of the apparitions and their impact on the world. In January 1987 the first newsletter was produced and distributed free to a mailing list of 200, developed primarily from the other pilgrims with whom Colafrancesco visited Medjugorje; within 5 months, the mailing list had grown to 6,000, strictly by word of mouth. Within four years, more than 100,000 people had requested the newsletter.
By the time Marija Lunetti visited Caritas of Birmingham in December of 1988, it already had become a major source of information about Medjugorje for an ever-growing community of faith. It distributes its materials for free, or as close to cost as possible. Costs are kept down by producing most of the material on-site with state-of-the-art equipment donated by supporters and operated by volunteers, the Community of Caritas, which is also a fully functional agrarian subsistence community, producing as much of their own food as possible. Thus, donations to Caritas of Birmingham can be dedicated almost exclusively to acquiring the supplies necessary to keep getting the word out.