Whether in the Middle Ages or a modern Marian renaissance, how Mary looks can reflect and affirm the people she appears to.

Today’s text from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith makes clear that henceforth, as a rule, the Holy See will not declare any alleged spiritual phenomenon, such as an apparition, as authentic‚ that is, “of divine origin.”

For every Fátima, there are dozens of unverified reports of divine messages, “weeping” statues, healing relics and prophetic revelations that have vexed church authorities and challenged the Vatican’s ability to track and verify such events.

“You do not have to believe in Marian apparitions to be a good Catholic,” Father James Martin writes. “But I do. I’ve never had a problem believing in them.”

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish its new norms for the discernment of apparitions and other supernatural phenomena May 17, the Vatican press office said.

Dominicans celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia on Jan. 21. The image, which depicts an infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph, is the most popular devotion in the Caribbean nation. It has been for centuries.