The same attitude seems to go for today's feast: that of St. Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes. Now mystical apparitions fall under the category of "private revelations," which add nothing to the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints. Indeed, and given as much, the Church does not even present the ones she formally approves as requiring the assent of faith. However, we ignore the approved ones only at our peril. If the sensus fidelium and the teaching authority of the Church have the relationship that the Church says and history bears out, then it's far safer to accept the approved ones as genuine, and act accordingly, than not. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, these things are dimly viewed almost everywhere save among orthodox and traditional Catholics: not merely by progressive Catholics and liberal Protestants, but by traditional Orthodox and conservative Protestants as well.
As far as I'm concerned, such a sign of contradiction only increases the credibility of these things. They have all the greater prophetic significance in our apocalyptic times, when humanity has achieved the capacity for destroying the planet and even remaking itself. Unless God intervenes, the former will coincide with the latter. It's time we listened humbly to the voice of these humble visionaries.
