A Shrine to Faith and Healing

By Janice Castro

The Pope gives thanks at the wellsprings of Lourdes

By pilgrimage and personal example, Pope John Paul II has tried to encourage greater devotion among Roman Catholics to the Mother of God. His travels have included stops for prayer at such famous Marian shrines as Fatima in Portugal, Guadalupe in Mexico and Czestochowa in his native Poland. But a prospective 1981 visit to the most famous shrine of all, at Lourdes in southwestern France, had to be postponed when the Pope was shot in St. Peter's Square by Turkish Gunman Mehmet Ali Agca. John Paul believes that he owes his recovery from that attack to the Virgin Mary. Thus his two-day trip to Lourdes last week, marking the 125th anniversary of a shrine associated with healing, was a kind of thanks.

In 1858, at a grotto on the edge of Lourdes, a 14-year-old peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous is said to have seen visions of the Blessed Mother on 18 different occasions. In one of those apparitions, Bernadette was told to dig in the grotto soil and "drink the water." The underground spring she uncovered is believed to have remarkable curative powers. After bathing in the waters or simply praying at the shrine, thousands of sick and handicapped people, an average of two every week, have claimed instant cures for conditions ranging from blindness to cancer. Church authorities have recognized only 64 of these incidents as miracles "not explainable by scientific means," after rigorous investigations by panels of medical specialists.

Last year alone, 4.4 million pilgrims came from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The annual influx of visitors, which has grown by nearly 40% since 1966, has transformed Lourdes (pop. 18,096) into one of the busiest tourist spots in France. Only Paris and Nice have more hotel rooms. As the first reigning Pontiff to visit Lourdes, John Paul was also affixing a sort of Vatican seal of approval to a Catholic shrine that is controversial as well as popular.

Lourdes has long been the target of criticism from Catholics who are offended by the crass commercialism of the more than 700 religious souvenir shops, innumerable ice-cream parlors and other tourist businesses that line its narrow streets. Lourdes alarm clocks, fondue sets and cigarette lighters compete for shelf space with bottles of "Eau de Toilette a la Bernadette" (three scents), tin napkin holders depicting Bernadette and the Virgin, and plastic packets of "Lourdes Mints" guaranteed to be made from grotto water.

There is also a tape cassette of Lourdes hits, including such saccharine hymns as Avec Toi, Bernadette and Ave Maria de Lourdes. The Pope's visit only added to the lively commercial buzz: I LIKE JOHN PAUL II buttons and T shirts appeared on the shelves overnight.

The Pope did not seem to mind at all.

On the eve of his arrival the Vatican issued a leaflet in defense of Lourdes' tourist traps, noting that while many criticize the souvenir shops, no one forgets to patronize them. In an even more direct gesture, the Pope visited the mayor of Lourdes and drove through the commercial district before proceeding to the 47-acre sanctuary surrounding the grotto (where vendors are prohibited). Said he: "Is not the city of Lourdes the place par excellence where the sick are really at home, with the same rights as the healthy, with services and facilities fully adapted to them?" Indeed, for all its tacky flash, Lourdes treats with respect the sick who come there hoping to be cured. Wheelchairs wait at the front doors of all 390 hotels, and stretchers on wheels are rigged so that the ill can be transported to the grotto, ricksha-style, by volunteers.

John Paul led a candlelight procession to the grotto on Sunday, which was followed by an open-air Mass in an adjacent meadow on Monday, the feast of the Assumption, the religious holiday marking Mary's entry into heaven. The Pope noted that his visit coincided with the 2,000th anniversary of her birth.-* The Mass was attended by 150,000 worshipers. That was far short of the expected 300,000, many of whom undoubtedly stayed away because of a terrorist act two days before John Paul's arrival. An anticlerical group calling itself Arrete Cures (Stop Priests) exploded an 11-lb. bomb just outside the grotto, shattering a 6-ft.-tall, cast-iron statue. There were no injuries, but the group threatened further violence (none occurred).

The most moving moment of the visit came at the close, when John Paul held a special audience for the sick. Walking quietly among the wheelchairs and stretchers, the Pope touched the lame, kissed the heads of small children carried to him by their parents, and blessed elderly cripples too weak even to speak. Finally, the Pope paused at the front of the grotto to pray in silence. For ten minutes he knelt, his head bowed, occasionally seeming to wipe away tears. Then he told his fellow pilgrims, "Faith assures us that the Lord can and wants to draw good from evil. Neither just nor unjust, suffering remains difficult to understand and difficult to accept, even for those who have faith." He might have been talking about himself.

--By Janice Castro. Reported by William Blaylock/Lourdes

* According to pious legend, Mary was 17 years old when Jesus was born.

With reporting by William Blaylock This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.