Some 200,000 pilgrims are expected to flock to the French shrine of Lourdes to attend a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI on September 14, a French bishop says.The head of the Roman Catholic Church will spend most of his September 12-15 visit to France in the south western town, one of the main Catholic pilgrimage sites which attracts some six million pilgrims each year.
The sanctuary at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains is this year celebrating the 150th anniversary of a series of visions of the Virgin Mary by a young French shepherdess.
French bishop Jacques Perrier was speaking to reporters following a mass celebrated in Lourdes by the archbishop of Paris Andre Vingt-trois.
The archbishop told reporters he also expected some 250,000 people to attend the pope's mass the Invalides esplanade in Paris on the morning of September 13.
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