Jesus did not appear on hill in France, Vatican says

Vatican City: Jesus may answer prayers but he has not made special appearances in a small town in the north of France, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

In a new instruction approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican's top doctrinal office said stories of appearances by Jesus in the town of Dozule, in Normandy, were not to be considered genuine by the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

A Catholic mother in the town had reported seeing Jesus 49 times during the 1970s, and said he had dictated a series of messages and told her to build a 7.38-metre (24.21-foot) cross on a hillside in the town.

"The phenomenon of the alleged apparitions ... is to be regarded, definitively, as not supernatural in origin, with all the consequences that flow from this determination," said the text issued by the doctrinal office.

Catholics believe religious figures such as Jesus and Mary can make supernatural appearances, called apparitions, to offer religious messages, create new devotional practices or make general appeals for peace.

The Vatican has a formal evaluation process for assessing claimed appearances, and it warns against use of alleged phenomena for monetary gain.

The Vatican also recently issued a decree clarifying the titles Catholics can use for Mary. That text said Mary cannot be called the "co-redeemer" of the world, since Catholics believe Jesus alone redeemed humanity by his crucifixion and death.

Notable Vatican-approved apparitions include Mary's appearance in Mexico as Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531 and Jesus' appearances to the Polish sister Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s.

"The Cross does not need 738 meters of steel or concrete to be recognized: it is raised every time a heart, moved by grace, opens itself to forgiveness," the Vatican said on Wednesday regarding the alleged appearances in Dozule.

The instruction also noted that the reported appearance of Jesus had said the world would end before the year 2000. "Clearly, this purported prophecy was not fulfilled," it said.