Editor’s Note: Father Smith first went to Medjugorje in 1988, leading a group of sixty-two people who wanted to go and who needed a spiritual director. This interview took place in January of 1994. Fr. Leroy Smith passed away in 2012.
Fr. Leroy Smith:
“Of course, my whole life was changed. That was the very first time, many wonderful experiences happened to me and the sixty-two people I was with. We saw many miracles. The biggest miracle in Medjugorje is the conversion of people, turning their whole lives around. I came back from Medjugorje not only with a greater devotion to Our Lady, but with a greater devotion to my prayer life and to my life as a priest ministering to people. I had gained a better understanding of and appreciation of the Mass. I have taken eleven trips to Medjugorje since then, and I am going back in April for my twelfth time. I have brought over eight hundred people with me – people whose lives have changed completely for the better. I started a prayer group on Friday evenings, about five couples and myself.”
“When people heard that we had a Medjugorje prayer group, in no time at all we had three hundred people in the church on Friday evenings. When I transferred to Saint Joseph’s in Cold Spring, I got together with this core group. We decided to have a Marian conference for youth. While we were planning this conference, we got a letter from a locutionist in Arkansas, who knew that we were having a Marian conference. In her letter, she said we would have many difficulties, and that when they happened, we should stop and say the rosary.”
“We said a lot of rosaries, because a lot of problems came up, but it all worked out very beautifully. We had a wonderful conference with about nine hundred in attendance. The locutionist also mentioned that Saint Joseph’s was going to be a place of great devotion to Our Lady, that many miracles would be performed, and that Our Lady would appear there. The letter was dated December 8, 1991.”
“In April 1992, I received a call from a lady who wouldn’t tell me who she was at first. Finally she said, “Father, Our Lady is going to appear at Saint Joseph’s on August 31, 1992.” She said that other things were going to happen up until the time Our Lady was to appear. To make sure that I would believe that Our Lady was going to appear, the caller, who later became known as the Batavia visionary, said, “Our Lady told me to tell you that you would believe all of this by reason of the little gold cross.” Two days earlier I had bought myself a little 14-carat gold cross. I don’t know why I bothered to do this. I just bought it. So, it was a little bit of a confirmation that what she was telling me was true.”
“Those things that she said would happen up until Our Lady appeared did happen to me and also to Father Rinfret, who was to become the priest in the East. Much preparation was made at Saint Joseph’s for Our Lady’s coming. Such a tremendous thing was going to happen, and I was the only one with all of this information. Finally, I prayed to Our Lady to lead me in this matter so that we could discern and pray over it.”
“I finally decided through prayer that I should tell my Friday night prayer group. I went through all of this with them. I said I would like to keep this as quiet as possible. Soon I had television and radio stations at my door; the story went out on the wire services all over the country. The next person to call me was the bishop. He told me not to say anything more about any kind of apparitions at Saint Joseph’s or anywhere else. I obeyed my bishop.”
“This did not mean that the media could not go to other people and find out, which is what they did. I received calls from all over the world as to what was going to happen on August 31 at midnight. Cold Spring is a little city, and not used to such notoriety. The authorities had the National Guard up on the roof with guns – I don’t know if they expected the people to run away with the parish or what! They had armored cars across the street.”
“It was a beautiful day. I saw many signs of Our Lady’s presence as I walked among the people. Rosaries were turning gold. People were getting all kinds of pictures of the sun. Things were happening. We prayed all day, rosaries and chaplets and litanies.”
“At 11:30 pm, I began the rosary in Church with the Blessed Sacrament exposed. We were only allowed to have 1050 people in the church, and they had to be parishioners. We were on the third or fourth decade at midnight; I stopped and said, “Let us welcome Our Lady to Saint Joseph’s.” An outburst of flashes of light began outside the church. The lights were spectacular and continued for some time. Our Lady appeared to some people on the grounds, and to the Batavia visionary who was inside the church.”
A total of twelve priests heard confessions from 9:00 am to midnight. Many young people, many non-Catholic people commented that when they walked onto the property, they never felt a peace like it in their whole lives.”
“One priest, who is a theologian from Xavier University in Cincinnati, claims that he saw Our Lady and I have no reason to doubt it. One parishioner tells me she was standing next to a non-Catholic at midnight who exclaimed, “How in the world did they get that huge statue up in the tree?” She was seeing Our Lady and didn’t know it.”
“There was a tremendous outpouring of grace to the people who were there, to the priests who were there. The bishop was not there. The bishop asked that I not say anything to anyone until he talked with me in the morning.”
“After we got the people off the grounds, about 2:30 am, I was in the house with a few friends. The front doorbell rang. I went to answer it. There were police cars lined up in the parking lot. I thought, “What happened?” The police chief said, “Father, would you mind if we went in the church and prayed for a while?” I almost wept. All these police went in front of the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady and prayed. It wasn’t long after that the doorbell rang again. There were media people lined up in the front yard. One came to me and said, “Father, we would like to go in the church and pray for a while.” I said “You go right ahead.” Something had happened to those people. Something had touched them.”
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