A former pastor from a Bosnian village where many Catholics believe the Virgin Mary has been appearing for 25 years will preach Thursday at SS. John & Paul parish in Franklin Park.

The Rev. Jozo Zovko was pastor of St. James in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in June 1981, when six children and teenagers first reported an apparition of Mary on a nearby hill.

For his defense of their story, communist authorities in what was then Yugoslavia jailed the Franciscan for three years, said Cathy Howe of Scott, his local coordinator.

Eventually the site brought so many foreign tourists to the cash-strapped nation that authorities tolerated it. About 20 million pilgrims have visited the ethnic Croatian village over 25 years.

Some of the visionaries continue to report messages from Mary. Typically it is a simple message of peace and holy living, characterized by one of the earliest visions: "Peace, peace, peace -- and only peace! Peace must reign between God and man and between men!"

The visionaries have given assurances that Mary continues to visit the Church of St. James each evening, whether they are there to see her or not. Many miracles have been claimed by visitors to Medjugorje -- one of the most common is rosaries that turn gold in color.

The Catholic Church has not made a final ruling on the authenticity of the apparitions. Two successive bishops of Mostar -- the local diocese -- denounced them as false. But the issue was muddied by a long history of conflict between the local bishops and the Franciscan priests who serve the village.

A 1991 investigation by the national bishops' conference of Yugoslavia was aborted by war and the breakup of the nation. In July the archbishop of Sarajevo announced a new investigation. Vatican officials have said that dioceses may not sponsor pilgrimages to Medjugorje, but that individual Catholics, including priests, may go there.

The official reason that no judgment has been made is that the reported visions continue.

"The church can never take a position on something until it is over," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Mrs. Howe, who leads pilgrimages to Medjugorje, accepts that. "The church is very slow, as it has to be," she said.

Her own story illustrates spiritual impact that pilgrims report. Now 57, she was a practicing Catholic but not inclined to talk of the miraculous until her mother's death 12 years ago. At the funeral home her mother's rosary beads -- which Mrs. Howe had placed in her hands because her mother prayed them daily -- turned from silver to "a rose gold," she said.

"I had always believed there was a heaven, but at that moment I knew there was a heaven," she said.

She had never heard of such a thing. Others told her about rosaries changing color in Medjugorje. Although she suffered from a chronic, debilitating immune disorder called mass cell disease, and although war was raging in Bosnia, she made her first of 12 pilgrimages there.

"We could hear bombs going off, but not one bomb fell on the village," she said. She prayed with thousands of pilgrims from throughout the world, she said.

Her pilgrimage leader took her to a nearby refugee camp, where families were living in old railroad cars. Mrs. Howe was so moved by the plight of the children that she founded Mother's Hope, a nonprofit organization to send aid. Many refugees are still there, she said.

Mrs. Howe did not go to Medjugorje seeking physical healing -- and she did not receive any. Three years later she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a slow cancer that is considered an outgrowth of her immune disease. As a consequence, she expanded the mission of Mothers Hope to provide financial support to families of Western Pennsylvania children who are stricken with cancer.

Her contact with so many other sick people at hospitals has given her an opportunity to share the hope that she believes God sent through Medjugorje.

"I'm sure people look at me and say, 'What's she doing this for? She's sick. God hasn't healed her.' But I have already had my most important miracle. I have been given the grace to do these things with Mothers Hope," she said.

"Medjugorje is an oasis of peace. Whatever cross you have, you know when you've been there that you are not carrying that cross alone. When you leave, whatever cross you have is wrapped up in hope and joy eternal."

She has had inquiries about Father Zovko's visit from as far away as Canada, she said. The church will open for rosary at 6:35 p.m. Mass will be at 7 p.m., followed by Eucharistic adoration.