Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje: Vatican will soon decide on authenticity, says Pope Francis

(Reuters/Stefano Rellandin)Pope Francis talks to journalists inside the papal plane during his flight to Manila.

Pope Francis recently revealed that the Vatican will soon make a ruling on the validity of the alleged miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje.

The pope made the revelation to journalists who were traveling with him on the papal plane at the culmination of his one-day trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo.

The alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary started 34 years ago when six children in Medjugorje claimed to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary. They described her as wearing a long, flowing white dress and a veil. She was said to also be carrying a child. The children claimed that the Madonna regularly showed herself to them and revealed 10 "secrets" that describe future events.

More than one million pilgrims visit the Bosnian town every year since news of the apparitions broke, despite the fact that the Vatican has not acknowledged the events as miraculous or true. It has also led to the construction of hotels and other businesses that cater to these pilgrims.

However, Medjugorje is far from being the only place where apparitions of the Virgin Mary have said to have manifested. The "Catholic News Service" have reported that there actually have been more than 1,500 visions of the Madonna reported around the world.

Visions or apparitions of the Virgin Mary are only accepted by the Vatican after the local bishop has investigated and determined its authenticity. To that end, the Vatican distributed a set of procedures and rules in 1978 for bishops to use when studying and verifying the reported apparitions.

The bishops of Medjugorje have already said that they do not believe the visions are authentic.

They reported in 1991 that "on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations."

Pope Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, created an international commission in 2010 that was tasked to investigate and rule on the visions in Medjugorje.

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