That’s wonderful that you believe that. I happen to believe Fatima. Fatima plays an almost no role in my spirituality, other than the prayer I say while praying the rosary.
I had a locution a long time ago before I came back to the Church. It has played a very large role in my coming back to the Church, although at the time I ignored it. It was a warning that I did not heed. It did not add to anything to public revelation (nor should it because all things have already been revealed through Jesus, and any apparition that adds to it or takes away from it should be rejected). I later found out that the same message is given in numerous places in the Bible. However, as a non-believer at the time, I did not care what the Bible said or what Catholics, Christians or any other religion said. It was probably given to me becuase I wouldn’t listen any other way.
If I never had that locution, I might be indifferent to apparitions, or any other similar phenomena. In all probability, I would never have come back to the Catholic faith, remained agnostic/secularist and my soul would have remained lukewarm.
Now I agree we do not have to believe in an apparition because the Vatican says it is worthy of belief. However, we are also free to believe or not to believe now as well, and the Vatican has not made up it’s mind on it. Obviously, something has to change from a point where the Pope says “We’re not sure” to “we believe it’s authentic”. That “something” may be important to someone. Maybe not to you or me, but it might make an important change for the better in someone else.
If apparitions were of no avail, then the Church would ignore all of them. There is a reason why they pay attention to some and approve them. If you don’t gain anything from apparitions, then that’s fine. But understand that some people may benefit spiritually from them, otherwise the Holy See would not approve of them at all. True there is danger of obsessing over them, but that is true of many things that Catholics do as well. So while it is good to warn of the dangers, it is also prudent to remember that good might come of it too.
God Bless,
Snert