Thank you, Mr. Tammeus. I'm Catholic and I also hope Pope Francis addresses some of your questions.

Although I have some skepticism about apparitions in general, so can't say much about Marian apparitions, I do know people who are/were certain that they have experienced apparitions. I was astonished when a wonderful salt-of-the earth former neighbor told me in all seriousness that her recently deceased sister appeared to her one evening. And my own mother told me that my brother who had died at ten years of age was taking care of her in the nursing home where she resided. I  suppose these might be, as Scrooge said, an "undigested bit of beef", etc. or the beginnings of dementia. But who knows? 

As for Mary, I love her but don't think she was the milque-toast person sometimes depicted. She had to be one strong woman to undergo the travails of her life.