By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist The Vatican Press Office released a communique yesterday announcing that it has begun a formal investigation of the alleged appearance of Our Lady at the shrine in Medjugorje. "An international investigative commission on Medjugorje has been constituted, under the presidency of Cardinal Camillo Ruini and dependent upon the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” the notice read. “Said commission - made up of cardinals, bishops, specialists and experts - will work privately, submitting the results of its work to the authority of the dicastery." This announcement ends months of speculation that the Vatican would become involved in the investigation of the apparitions that are said to have begun in 1981 to six youth in a remote village 70 miles southwest of Sarajevo. Since that time, an estimated 30 million people have visited the area even though it has never been formally approved as an official shrine.  The youth, now adults with families of their own, claim that the apparitions and messages continue on a regular schedule to this day. The local Catholic hierarchy has always been skeptical. Bishop Ratko Peric of the diocese of Mostar where Medjugorje is located has strongly advised against accepting the authenticity of the apparitions. Bishop Peric has reportedly asked Rome to get involved, a plea that many believe may have prompted the decision to form a commission to study the situation. © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com