The Vatican gives the green light to devotion in a place in Bosnia where the Virgin supposedly appeared

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Thursday gave Catholics the green light to continue flocking to a southern Bosnian village where children said they had visions of the Virgin Mary, offering its blessing for the devotion at one of the most disputed sites of Roman Catholic practice in recent years.

In a detailed analysis after nearly 15 years of study, the Vatican’s doctrine office has not declared the reported apparitions at Medjugorje to be authentic or of supernatural origin, and has raised concerns about contradictions in some of the “messages” the purported visionaries say they have received over the years.

But in line with New Vatican criteria This year, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has established that the positive “spiritual fruits” derived from the experience of Medjugorje more than justify allowing the faithful to organize pilgrimages there and public acts of devotion.

The decision puts to rest years of doubts about the veracity of the alleged apparitions by the region's diocesan bishops and Vatican experts, and ignores ongoing concerns about the economic interests that have turned Medjugorje into a thriving destination for religious tourism.

Last year alone, 1.7 million Eucharistic hosts were distributed during Masses celebrated there, according to statistics posted on the site's website, a rough estimate of the number of Catholics who visited it.

But with Pope Francis’ blessing, the doctrine office deemed that “the abundant and widespread fruits, so beautiful and positive” justified its decision, and said that they “highlight that the Holy Spirit is acting fruitfully for the good of the faithful in the midst of this spiritual phenomenon.”

In 1981, six children and teenagers reported having visions of Our Lady on a hill in the village of Medjugorje, located in the wine-growing region of southern Bosnia. Some of those original “visionaries” have claimed that the visions have occurred regularly ever since, even daily, and that Mary sends them messages.

According to some estimates, the Virgin Mary has appeared to “visionaries” more than 40,000 times since 1981.

“This is my third time here and every time I come I feel like I really want to come back,” said Mia Hash, a pilgrim from Lebanon who was visiting Medjugorje on a rainy Thursday when the Vatican made the announcement. “It’s the most peaceful place in the world, I really love it here.”

However, unlike what happened in the past, Well-known and established Catholic shrines In Fatima, Portugal or Lourdes, France, the alleged apparitions of Medjugorje were never declared authentic by the Vatican.

And over the years, local diocesan bishops in the area and some Vatican officials had cast doubt on the reliability and motivations of the “visionaries.” Two experts chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to study Medjugorje concluded that the Medjugorje phenomenon had a “demonic” origin.

Even Francis in 2017 expressed doubts about the messages, saying: “I prefer Our Lady to be a mother, our mother, and not a telegraph operator who sends a message every day at a certain time,” he said.

Religious tourism has become an important part of the local economy, with an entire industry dedicated to catering to pilgrims: hotels, private accommodation, family-run agricultural businesses, even sports complexes and campsites. Its growth has contributed to the financial well-being of the surrounding municipality after the Bosnian war in the 1990s devastated the economy.

The Vatican, however, did not express any concern about the economic interests behind Medjugorje, and the Holy See's editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, cited by name a Milan-based religious travel agency, Rusconi Travel, which takes pilgrims there by bus.

Robert Fastiggi, a consultant to the Vatican’s Marian apparition observatory, praised the Vatican’s delay in making a decision and said he believed the Holy See was probably impressed by “the numerous signs of authentic Catholic spirituality connected with Medjugorje.”

“I think the DDF (Vatican dicastery) made its decision in light of the evangelical criterion: 'By their fruits you shall know them,'” said Fastiggi, a professor of dogmatic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

In its assessment, the Vatican's doctrine office recalled that in May this year it announced that it was no longer engaged in authenticating alleged apparitions and other supposedly supernatural phenomena that have attracted Catholics for centuries, including statues that supposedly weep blood or stigmata that are said to sprout spontaneously on hands or feet.

The new criteria envision six main outcomes, the most favorable being that the Church gives a non-binding doctrinal green light, the so-called “nihil obstat,” meaning there is nothing about the event that is contrary to the faith and therefore Catholics can express devotion to it.

The Vatican on Thursday gave Medjugorje that “nihil obstat.” The local bishop issued the decree authorizing devotion there and it is now possible that a shrine could be built, said the head of the doctrine office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez.

At a nearly two-hour press conference in which those present were invited to recite the “Hail Mary” prayer at the end, Fernandez revealed that St. John Paul II was a firm believer in Medjugorje and had wanted to visit it but was denied permission by the local bishop.

The decision does not force the faithful to believe in the Medjugorje phenomenon, but rather allows them to do so.

In its analysis, the Vatican listed what it called the many spiritual benefits that have been associated with pilgrimages to the site, including people deciding they want to become priests or nuns, couples reconciling after marital problems, healings after prayer and new charitable works to care for orphans and drug addicts.

No examples of negative experiences associated with Medjugorje are mentioned. Nor is there any mention of the fact that the priest most closely associated with Medjugorje and the six “visionaries” was defrocked by the Vatican in 2009 for, among other things, spreading false doctrines.

The Vatican appeared to want to distance itself from the people who received the alleged apparitions, stressing that these benefits did not occur as a result of encounters with them but rather “in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events.”

Fernandez said there was no ban on contact with the “visionaries,” but that it was not advisable. And in a sign that a verdict on them and the entire phenomenon had not yet been issued, he reaffirmed that Francis’ personal envoy to Medjugorje would monitor the site and assess any future messages allegedly received by the “visionaries” before they were published.

“The nihil obstat does not solve everything for the future,” he said.

In his 17-page document, he used nearly four pages to list concerns about problems in some of the thousands of individual messages the purported visionaries have received, including cases where the message contradicted aspects of Catholic doctrine.

The decision will surely affect Medjugorje, located in the municipality of Citluk, one of the smallest in Bosnia, with about 18,000 inhabitants, but economically well-off.

“Medjugorje means a lot, all economic sectors rely on Medjugorje,” said Ante Kozina, the president of the tourism association. “It is a generator of growth for the entire municipality.”

On Thursday, pilgrims wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas said they were pleased with the Vatican's decision.

“I think it’s good that no hasty decisions are being made,” said Darko Dumic, a pilgrim from the Croatian coastal city of Split. But he expressed hope that an even more positive decision would be made in the future, “an official decision to make Medjugorje a holy place.”

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Emric contributed from Medjugorje, Bosnia. Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.

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Nicole Winfield, Eldar Emric and Jovana Gec, The Associated Press