The Vatican’s doctrine office didn’t declare that the reported apparitions in Medjugorje were authentic or of supernatural origin.

The Vatican is providing its long-awaited assessment on one of the more contested aspects of Roman Catholicism in recent years: the reported “apparitions” of the Virgin Mary at an otherwise unremarkable village in southern Bosnia.

Pope Francis has approved a Catholic spiritual devotion centred in Medjugorje, a town in Bosnia that has been steeped in controversy over whether the Virgin Mary appears to local people, the Vatican said on Thursday.

The Vatican issued a long-awaited note on the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It did not say the apparitions were authentic but acknowledged spiritual fruit.

El Vaticano dio luz verde el viernes a que los católicos sigan acudiendo a un poblado bosnio donde varios niños dijeron haber visto visiones de la Virgen María, y dio su sello de aprobación al culto en el lugar,

Vatican gives green light to devotion at Bosnian site in Medjugorje where Virgin Mary is said to have appeared

The Vatican has given the go-ahead for Catholics to continue visiting a southern Bosnian village where children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. The Vatican offered its approval for devotion in one of the most contested aspects of Roman Catholic practice in recent years.