Shrine illuminated by lights, efforts of volunteers and staff

Published: 2003-12-11

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (CNS) -- When the Christmas lights -- all 250,000 of them -- were illuminated in late November at the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, it marked the 50th anniversary of the shrine's Christmas Festival of Lights. With this year's theme, "50 Years of Grace," organizers at the shrine have been preparing in a variety of ways for the quarter of a million people who visit each year. "We try to make this a place that welcomes everybody," La Salette Father George Brennan, shrine director, told The Catholic Observer, newspaper of the Springfield Diocese. "People come here for many different reasons," he said. "Some people have been coming as part of a family tradition and have been doing it for years. Some people have been coming as part of a religious pilgrimage. Sometimes people come simply because they like pretty lights."

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