Terry colafrancesco biography

Established by an American pilgrim to Medjugorje, Caritas of Birmingham has blossomed into a community of the faithful, who gather and distribute news of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and related events while living lives of deep commitment and faith. The apparitions started in in Medjugorje, which is the Eastern European site of the apparitions, when six different villagers reported seeing Our Lady; she has since continued to appear regularly, and witnesses have reported miraculous phenomena associated with the apparitions. The village, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has become popular among religious pilgrims, attracting more than 1 million visitors annually. When Alabama’s Terry Colafrancesco participated in one of those pilgrimages in July , he was so deeply affected that he changed the focus of Caritas of Birmingham, which he had founded a few months before his pilgrimage, to bear witness solely to the visions at Medjugorje and spread Our Lady’s messages to the faithful everywhere.

Striving to be as self-sufficient as possible to keep costs down and continue distributing its newsletters and other materials for free or as close to cost as possible, Caritas of Birmingham today produces much of its materials on its own equipment, including a printing press. It also employs state-of-the-art technology whenever possible for the production of DVDs, audio cassettes, and CDs, and it maintains the most comprehensive Medjugorje-oriented website on the Internet. Staffed by a community members and volunteers, Caritas of Birmingham has a comprehensive agrarian system as well, producing much of its own food. In addition to his work at Caritas of Birmingham, Terry Colafrancesco also leads pilgrimages to Medjugorje.

One of the Medjugorje visionaries, Marija Lunetti, visited Caritas of Birmingham in December ; while there, she saw Our Lady, who gave her a message to share. Lunetti has visited many times since, and there have been more apparitions and messages, which gave Lunetti and her audience great comfort and joy. Those messages also demonstrate God’s continued great love for the United States, and moved Colafrancesco to develop the Patriotic Rosary, which seeks Our Lady’s intercession to return the nation to God.