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July 20, 2008
Pilgrimage to Lourdes Following in the footsteps of St. Bernadette
About 180 Catholics from the Archdiocese of Chicago will join their brothers and sisters in faith from all over the world in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette in August.
Cardinal George will lead the Chicago pilgrimage. This spiritual journey, titled, “Our Lady of Lourdes: A Message of Grace, Hope and Joy,” was open to people of all ages from all areas of the archdiocese, with special encouragement to people in need of healing.
Lourdes, in the south of France, is the most visited Christian shrine in the world. Lourdes attracts over 6 million pilgrims of all faiths seeking healing and spiritual peace each year.
The pilgrims will pray at the Grotto of Massabielle, where where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times between Feb. 11 and July 14, 1858, to the 14- year-old Bernadette Soubirous, telling her, among other things, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
As Bernadette was accompanied by larger and larger crowds when she visited the grotto, the Virgin told her to tell the priests to build a chapel there.
The visions were declared authentic in 1862. By that time, seven people had reported experiencing cures or miracles after visiting the grotto, according to the official Web site of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Father Wayne Watts, pastor of St. John Berchmans Parish, has led groups of young people and adults on pilgrimages to Lourdes since 1995.
Plans for this pilgrimage came together very smoothly, Watts said, with the kind of representative group that the cardinal hoped for when he announced the pilgrimage last year.
Many of the pilgrims who would not otherwise be able to make the trip will receive scholarships, he said.
Pilgrims from Chicago will travel in two groups, one leaving Aug. 2 and returning Aug. 9 and one leaving Aug. 3 and returning Aug. 10.
While in Lourdes, the pilgrims will attend Mass each day, have time for private devotions and to take the waters in the famous baths, learn about St. Bernadette and visit sites associated with her life, participate in the eucharistic procession and the blessing of the sick, and, as a group, make the way of the cross.
Those who make the pilgrimage may receive a special indulgence if they fulfill the normal requirements set by the church for all plenary indulgences; these include the person going to confession within a reasonably short period of time, receiving the Eucharist and praying for the intentions of the pope, all in a spirit of total detachment from the attraction of sin. Pilgrims should visit the parish where St. Bernadette was baptized, her family home, the Massabielle Grotto and the chapel where she received her first Communion.
Pope Benedict XVI will make his own pilgrimage to Lourdes Sept. 13-15.
