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.

After decades, and controversy, the Vatican has authorized public worship at a shrine in Bosnia, where a once tranquil village has become a major pilgrimage site.

In June 1981, six children aged 10 to 16 claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared to them on a hilltop near the town.

The Vatican on Thursday gave the green light for Catholics to continue flocking to a southern Bosnian village where children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary.

While the Vatican did not confirm that the Marian apparitions were real, it recognized that the devotion of the faithful to the site is undeniable.

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.

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

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

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.