Fun article. Always entertaining to see David Hume type-Catholics who are...erm...uncomfortable with supernatural stuff try and juggle the Marian apparition bit. Their interpretations of Guadalupe (Mary the intercultural dialogue warrior princess!) and Lourdes (spiritual renewal in the waters on the periphery) are laudable efforts.

As this article demonstrates though the benign Fatima interpretation remains most elusive out of the big three apparitions in recent centuries.

"Pray for peace? Be like shepherd children? War is bad?"

The constant exhortations to penance and reparation through suffering because God is offended by humanity's many sins and many poor souls are going to hell doesn't bend so easily to ambiguous spirituality...