VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – 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’s doctrinal office said that Francis was not declaring alleged apparitions of the Madonna were authentic, but was rather recognising that there were “positive fruits” for Catholics in the spiritual experience tied to the town.

Tuesday’s statement appears to conclude decades of Vatican investigations into the alleged visitations, which were first reported by six children in 1981, in a scenario reminiscent of famous apparitions in the French town of Lourdes in the 19th century and more than 100 years ago in Fatima in Portugal.

The Bosnian village has become a major pilgrimage site, attracting hundreds of thousands each year and giving many people what they say is a renewed sense of spirituality.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Crispian Balmer)