Why do Roman Catholics go to Lourdes?

Answer 1

Lourdes in in Southern France - a tiny village nestling in the Pyrennees.

It is special to Christians, Catholics especially, as many believe that a young peasant girl called Bernadette saw visions of the Virgin Mary there in the 19th century, who spoke to her on many occasions. The visions took place in a small grotto in the hillside where a spring gushed from the rocks there. After the visions the waters of the spring were said to have healing properties. Because of the special place of veneration of the Virgin Mary that Catholics have, Lourdes is especially a place of pilgrimage to Catholics, although all denominations of the Christian Church can be seen there as visitors.

As non-Catholics, my wife and I still decided to visit there a few years ago. Lourdes itself is now horrible - full of tourist shops selling tatty plastic statuettes of Mary, plastic crosses that light up and bottles and containers galore with which to collect spring water, interspersed with fast-food places with 'Bernadette-sounding' names, and all sorts of tourist-tat shops. The whole village reeks of the Temple at Jerusalem where Christ threw out the moneychangers. However, after you get past this, you enter the part of the village now owned by the Catholic Church - a vast area of land in the village outskirts, housing the grotto and the large basilica now built on the top if the hillside. The mood changes dramatically; no shops or brash souvenirs. Instead there is quiet, only broken by the constant worship that goes on all day, every day. Even if the legend of Bernadette is not true, the space in which you stand still seems holy and special - made so possibly by the Holy Spirit in the millions of Christians who have worshipped there since the visions happened.

Each day thousands of sick and dying people go there in the hope of healing from the waters. For some the healing comes as a peaceful death, in the knowledge of God's love for them afterwards. For some it comes as a cure after bathing in the waters. Many are sceptical about the healing powers of the water there, but nevertheless, there are still, each year, a small percentage of healings that cannot be put down to anything medical or psychological, and the reason for the healing is either miraculous or still unknown.

Answer 2

Roman Catholic AnswerGoing to Lourdes is considered a pilgrimage for Catholics, they go for different reasons, some go for healing, some just to pray, some to see it, etc.