More Lourdes Updates

Outside of "The Cachot" - the abandoned prison cell where Bernadette and her family lived for 3 years:

The "Foyer" - a gathering area for the Lourdes volunteers: 

My Italian and Irish friends at the Foyer:

On the steps of the Rosary Basilica with Fr. Robert Dunn from the Order of Malta Volunteers, whom I met last Summer in Lourdes:

A Rainy Day in Lourdes

It rains in Lourdes a few times a week....

More from Lourdes

The miraculous waters of Lourdes are diverted to be more easily accessible:

The grotto:

Outdoor altar dedicated to Our Lady and Saint Bernadette: 

Catholic Ukraine at the Rosary procession:

Around Lourdes

My Vietnamese friends before the Rosary procession:

A pilgrimage group from Glasgow, Scotland just arrived:

Making new friends after the Rosary Procession each night:

Cistercian monks in Lourdes:

Lourdes

I arrived in Lourdes late on Friday evening.  I am staying again at the Seminarians' House, Marthe et Marie (House of Martha and Mary):

The basilica on a cloudy day:

The grotto:

This coming week, pilgrims return from Scotland and England, which was a very enjoyable time last year.  I will be posting photos as soon as I can.

Greetings from Paris!

Because of the chemotherapy infusion the day before leaving, I was unable to begin the pilgrimage with the traditional Stella Artois.  I left from Charlotte around 5:00 pm on Thursday, arriving in Paris just after 7:00 am local time.

Unfortunately, a slightly late arrival and busy transfer traffic caused me to miss my 8:40 am flight to Pau (near Lourdes), so I am in Paris waiting for the next flight at 12:45 pm.  In the meantime, I am enjoying an espresso and pain au chocolat:

I should arrive in Lourdes by this evening, and will be sure to pray for everyone at the Rosary Procession tonight.

Medical Update, and a Return to Lourdes

I have just returned from my medical appointments in Washington, D.C.  While the chemotherapy seems to be slowing the tumor's growth, unfortunately it has continued to grow over the past four weeks.  I received another chemotherapy infusion today, and tomorrow I leave to spend three weeks in Lourdes, France helping the sick and giving tours to the pilgrims.

Please check back often as I will be uploading pictures from my pilgrimage, just like last year.  If you have any prayer petitions you would like me to take to Our Lady's grotto, please email them to me and I will do so immediately.

I ask for your prayers during my travels, and please know of my prayers for all of my friends and benefactors during my stay!

"I was nothing, and with this nothing, God accomplished a great thing."

-Saint Bernadette Soubirous

Interview With Patrick Theillier, Director of Lourdes Shrine's Medical Office

An interesting article about the treatment of alleged miracles in Lourdes, France:

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LOURDES, France, AUG. 23, 2004 (Zenit) - When patients attribute their seemingly miraculous cures to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dr. Patrick Theillier steps in.  Theillier has the task of examining such claims of miraculous cures.

Q: What does your work entail?

Theillier: As director of the Lourdes Medical Office, I am the only permanent doctor at the shrine. I am responsible for health care during the time of pilgrimages. I am also responsible for receiving the doctors who come here and for facilitating their work. Together with them, we ensure health care and recommend patients to the hospital's emergency services.

I am also president of the Lourdes International Medical Association, made up of patients, doctors and health care professionals. Dentists, pharmacists, etc., come to register in this association. Its participants carry out a comparative study of cases of healing, without considering people's beliefs.

Q: What do you do with those you think have experienced a miracle?

Theillier: I have an unusual role for a doctor, as I look after persons who have been cured.  I have been entrusted by the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes with examining people who think they have benefited from the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Obviously, I don't analyze miracles attributed to the intercession of other saints, which are examined in Rome. Lourdes is the only place, outside of the Vatican, with a medical office in which inexplicable cures are examined.

It is not indispensable to have come on pilgrimage [to the shrine]: Of the 66 cases of recognized miraculous cures, three have never been to Lourdes, but prayed to Our Lady of Lourdes. In the case of half of those who have experienced a miracle, Lourdes water has played a part in their cure.

Q: How do you verify a miracle?

Theillier: The scientific aspect must be distinguished from the spiritual. The cure must exceed the known laws of the illness' evolution, and the person who has experienced the miracle must also recognize the spiritual meaning of the event.

For the cure to be recognized as a miracle, it must fulfill seven criteria. It is necessary to verify the illness, which must be serious, with an irrevocable prognosis. The illness must be organic or caused by injuries. There must be no treatment at the root of the cure. The latter must be sudden and instantaneous.

Finally, the renewal of functions must be total and lasting, without convalescence.

For this reason, the recognition of a miracle takes several years. Once we have recognized it, the cure is published by the bishop of the diocese where the person resides who experienced the miracle.