Praise be Jesus Christ, and welcome to Vatican Radio's live-streamed broadcast of Pope Leo's visit to pilgrims with disabilities and sick and frail pilgrims at the Accueil Notre-Dame facility in Lourdes, the very famous Marian pilgrimage site, the location of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette Soubirous in the middle of the 19th century. Lourdes, of course, has become one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world, famous for its clearly attested miraculous healings.
Millions of pilgrims have come to visit the church and facilities here in Lourdes and to take a dip in the famous waters of Lourdes, which are known for their healing properties.
My name is Christopher Wells. I'll be providing the English language commentary for today's visit. For those of you watching on the video feed, you can see that the Holy Father is just arriving here at the facility.
And as we begin our broadcast, I would like to welcome everyone joining us through the various Vatican media channels, the Vatican audio or radio app, the Vatican News website, or the Vatican News YouTube channel, as well as via our partner stations including EWTN TV, Catholic Faith Network in America, Salt and Light TV, and Shalom Channel TV. Very warm welcome, one and all. Our Holy Father is entering the facility and taking a moment to shake hands with some of the faithful and visitors who are here outside of the building waiting for a glimpse of the Holy Father.
The Accueil Notre-Dame is a residential and healthcare facility that was designed and is seen and intended to be a kind of a big family home. Pilgrims and groups and those who assist the pilgrims come from around the world and are able to stay here at this large residential accommodation. It features dining rooms, bedrooms, chapels, halls, various other rooms, tea rooms, etc.
And the family atmosphere where all are welcome is really part of the uniqueness of this facility here in Lourdes. That uniqueness is also characterized by the host community that welcomes pilgrims here. The Accueil is made up of about 50 employees, as well as religious women and men, including Sisters of Charity of Nevers, Brothers and Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, as well as hundreds of volunteers from the hospitality of the Our Lady of Lourdes Sanctuary.
And the Holy Father outside of the facility is going to be seated here, where he'll be welcomed by the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Bishop Jean-Marc Micalet, and he's been led to the chair that's been set up for him, and the bishop will be offering a word of greeting here.
Amen. Most Holy Father, ever since the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette, the faith of the sick has found expression here spontaneously, simply and powerfully, just as it does in so many shrines around the world. Last night at the grotto of Massabielle, you performed the same gestures as the pilgrim of Lourdes. Here the sick perform these very acts accompanied by their loved ones, by the hospital service organizations, by their pastors and by the entire church.
Here illness is not hidden. It is never viewed as a humiliation or a loss of dignity. Quite the contrary, it allows the deepest human dignity to shine forth, like a light illuminating hearts and bodies, revealing a love greater than any suffering. And there is an abundance of love in this house and in all the welcoming centers of Lourdes.
Among all the shrines in the world, Our Lady of Lourdes is profoundly marked by the pilgrimage of the sick and the broken, those suffering in a thousand different ways, and of those who accompany them. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, the sick are at the heart of the pilgrimage, and everyone is a pilgrim: the sick and the caregivers, the hospital volunteers and doctors, the staff and the volunteers at the houses that welcome them for a few days. I am happy to present them to you. Thank you for your presence here with us today.
That was the welcome extended by Bishop Jean-Marc Micalet, the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes. And we'll now hear from the director of the facility here at the Notre-Dame.
Director of Accueil Notre-Dame
7:45 ↗
Most Holy Father, the house you have before you is an explicit and concrete response to the invitation the Virgin Mary pronounced to the grotto in 1858. The Notre-Dame reception allows sick or disabled people to make their pilgrimage to Lourdes and thus respond to the call of the Virgin Mary: 'Let us come here in procession. Let a chapel be built. Go drink from the spring and wash there. Do penance. Pray to God for sinners.' Here those who are fragile come from all over the world, facing multiple obstacles, contrary opinions, perplexities, economic difficulties, logistical and transport impossibilities.
Some 750,000 sick people or people with disabilities have stayed here since the reception's inauguration in 1997. Among them, St. John Paul II in 2004.
Holy Father, how can it be that their fragilities are the cement of the stones of this building, constructed with incredible audacity in the heart of the sanctuary, 27,000 square meters as close as possible to the grotto? How can it be that the most fragile are the cement of this human edifice of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, caregivers, and helpers who we call hospital workers?
How can it be that they are the cement of a working and welcoming community where employees, religious men and women, volunteers of the hospitality of Notre-Dame of Lourdes, of all social conditions and from all over the world are active on a daily basis? Thousands of people choose to spend their vacations in Lourdes to help the sick make their pilgrimage. What meaning does this have? The Blessed Virgin said here: 'I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the other.' I think I can tell you that we are here in the other world.
This world where we see ourselves as people, whatever our physical or psychological state. This world where the priority is the gesture that relieves, the word that consoles, the look that soothes, the prayer that binds us, the sacraments that carry us into hope. Welcome to our community of life. Most Holy Father, welcome to Notre-Dame.
And we're now expecting to hear the testimony of a doctor working here.
Your Holiness. I have worked as a doctor for 40 years and have in the hall of its hospital the motto of Ambroise Paré, the father of modern surgery, who died in the 16th century: 'I bandaged him, God healed him.' What magnificent humility of the doctor! Caring requires giving of ourselves, sharing our humanity, refusing to reduce our mission to the verb 'to have' or the verb 'to be', but to live it through the verb 'to love'.
Lourdes allows us to make the most beautiful journey by going to meet others, especially the most fragile, who offer us the gift of revealing our own vulnerability. Wonderful gift of the servant-servant relationship, which can only be welcomed by loving it. Lourdes is joy by serving our sick brothers and sisters. It is God we serve by being the Samaritan, the innkeeper, even just the mount. We receive so many graces in this place that the desire to return there as soon as possible grips us, to say thank you by taking us through the path of conversion that the Virgin Mary transmitted to St. Bernadette. Lourdes allows everyone to pray for their healing by receiving the certainty of forgiveness.
This journey has personally changed my way of being a doctor. I share a piece of warm humanity by holding the hand of those who suffer, never forgetting to thank the Lord every morning for this day that is offered. 'I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the other,' said the Virgin Bernadette on February 18, 1858. 'Suffering remains a mystery, but accompanied, relieved, soothed, it allows us to understand these words of Charles: what is not yet and what will be. We do not take care of life by causing death.' I simply recall the words of the oath I took in January 1987.
I will do everything to alleviate the suffering. I will not unduly prolong the agonies. I will never deliberately cause death.
