Bishop says pope to visit Lourdes to praise God, not seek healing

Published: 2004-07-30

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II will make an Aug. 14-15 pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, not to seek physical healing but to praise God for his great gifts, including the gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary, said the papal trip organizer. "Lourdes is not just a place to seek healing, it is a place where people demonstrate their faith in God and their devotion to Mary," said Bishop Renato Boccardo, the trip organizer and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The 84-year-old Pope John Paul has billed his trip to the shrine in the French Pyrenees as part of his commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the solemn proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. "To look at this pilgrimage as the trip of a sick person among the sick is totally shortsighted," Bishop Boccardo told Catholic News Service July 27.

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