Without the sick, Lourdes would become a "Catholic Disneyland", Lourdes Bishop Jacques Perrier says. Bishop Perrier made his comments as Pope Benedict devoted his last Mass in Lourdes yesterday to the sick, reconfirming the priority that is conferred upon those suffering from handicaps or illness, The Irish Times reports.
In Lourdes there are red wheelchair lanes painted on the pavements. Men walk through the streets shouting "Les Malades, Les Malades" to clear the way for the sick, the paper says.
Hundreds of thousands of believers volunteer each year to be hospitaliers, those who care for a disabled person non-stop for several days.
"Without the sick," Bishop Perrier said, "Lourdes would become a Catholic Disneyland."
In his homily in a Mass for the sick, Pope Benedict concentrated on the smile of the Virgin Mary, "which is directed quite particularly to those who suffer, so that they can find comfort and solace therein."
Mary first taught Bernadette to know her smile, this being the most appropriate point of entry into the revelation of her mystery", the pope said, recounting the apparitions of 150 years ago.
"Within the smile of the Virgin lies mysteriously hidden the strength to fight against sickness . . . the grace to accept without fear or bitterness to leave this world at the hour chosen by God."
Pope Benedict then anointed 10 pilgrims in wheelchairs, including Clare Kirby (55), from Walshestown, near Mullingar in Ireland.
Mrs Kirby suffers from multiple sclerosis. Although the disease was diagnosed 18 years ago, she was able to continue annual pilgrimages to Lourdes as a blue coated volunteer. "This is the first time I'm too ill to do it," she said. So when Fr Joe Gallagher of the Meath diocease was asked for the name of a sick Irish person, he immediately said: "It's Clare."
Mrs Kirby was told on Sunday night that she would be anointed by the Pope yesterday morning.
"I thought maybe I might be cured," she said. "Then I prayed to all the people who are dead, to my mother and father and a good lot of friends, and I asked them to whisper to Our Lady, so she might intercede with Our Father . . . "
"I'd put up with it if I'm left the way I am," Mrs Kirby told me. "I have bad pain in my back, but I still enjoy life. Sometimes I'm angry, but never with God. If I was feeling sorry for myself, I'd say I got a raw deal in life."
The Pope dabbed oil on her forehead and upturned palms, called her name and prayed for her in English.
"I need a cigarette!" Mrs Kirby exclaimed afterwards, rummaging through her handbag for a lighter.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, stopped to shake Mrs Kirby's hand.
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(Source: CN)