Wiinikka-Lydon, Joseph2019-09-252019-09-252011-07-2720101522-5658http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/180372Focusing on the use of Marian imagery from Medjugorje during the Bosnian War (1992- 1995), and employing R. Scott Appleby’s use of the concept, sacred ambivalence, this essay will examine how a religious image proclaiming peace can also support violence and war. It will show that a Croat nationalist ideology at work during the war interpreted Mary’s peace through a hermeneutic of violence, where violence was necessary to restore peace – defined under this ideology as a landscape of political, religious, and cultural homogeneity.engWith permission of the license/copyright holderviolencecatholic social doctrinewar crimesnationalismPolitical ethicsEthics of political systemsEthics of lawRights based legal ethicsPeace ethicsGovernance and ethicsDevelopment ethicsChristian denominationsRoman CatholicArticle