The Times of Malta looks more and more like a parochial Church newspaper. It devotes too much space to devotional topics. The latest, entitled ‘A century of faith’, was a two-page spread on the dubious “visions” of illiterate peasant children.

The feature said that “Fatima, which, like the shrine at Lourdes, France, draws huge numbers of visitors, is undoubtedly the most prophetic of modern apparitions”. It also quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as having said, in a commentary in 2000, that: “A careful reading of the text of the so-called third secret of Fatima... will probably prove disappointing or surprising after all the speculation it has stirred. No great mystery is revealed; nor is the future unveiled.”

The feature referred to the mirage known as “the miracle of the sun”. Even if many people claim to have witnessed an event contrary to our ordinary experience of nature, we should hesitate to believe them. An ophthalmologist observed: “If you stare at the sun long enough, you are going to see bizarre visual phenomena.”

The Mother of God allegedly told the children at Fatima: “Through the rosary, you can stop wars.” She would have had better results in stopping wars if she had addressed the world’s statesmen rather than illiterate peasant children.

In his commentary, Cardinal Ratzinger questioned whether the alleged apparitions were “only projections of the inner world of children”.