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.

More than 40 million pilgrims from around the world have flocked to the small village named Medjugorje since 1981.

After 40 years of studies, commissions and contradictions, the Vatican finally approved the spiritual devotion of the faithful at the Marian site at Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in a document issued on Thursday.

Since the alleged visions, Medjugorje has evolved into a significant pilgrimage destination, attracting over a million visitors each year to the town, which has a population of just over 2,000.

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’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.

Pope Francis has expressed some doubts on the messages, commenting in 2013 on the Virgin Mary’s particularly chatty nature at Medjugorje.