Archbishop visits Lourdes

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Archbishop of Canterbury to preach in Lourdes for 150th anniversary of the visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Archbishop of Canterbury will participate in anniversary celebrations at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, at the invitation of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Monsignor Jacques Perrier.

He will preach at the International Mass on 24th September 2008 which is being celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

The Archbishop will also participate in a Pilgrimage of bishops, clergy and laity of the Church of England, which is organised by the Society of Mary and the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The Archbishop will be accompanied in Lourdes by the Church of England bishop with particular responsibility for chaplaincies in France, the Right Reverend David Hamid, the suffragan bishop of the Diocese in Europe.

Christian unity is designated as one of the elements of the Church's mission to which the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes specifically contributes and is one of the strands being celebrated in the 150th anniversary celebrations.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, hails Catholic saint at Lourdes

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has held up a Roman Catholic saint as an inspiration to the faithful, in a ground breaking visit to the shrine of Lourdes.

Dr Williams said the story of Bernadette Soubirous, the 19th century peasant girl whose visions of Mary led to the founding of the shrine, provided hope for those who were attempting to spread the Christian faith.

He added that the experience of coming to a holy place "soaked in the hopes and prayers of millions" could help people grasp the "deep and mysterious" joy of God.

"Bernardette's neighbours and teachers and parish clergy knew all they thought they needed to know about the Mother of God - and they needed to be surprised by this inarticulate, powerless, marginal teenager who had leapt up in the joy of recognition to meet Mary as her mother, her sister, bearer of her Lord and Redeemer," he said.

"Our prayer here must be that, renewed and surprised in this holy place, we may be given the overshadowing strength of the Spirit to carry Jesus wherever we go, in the hope that joy will leap from heart to heart in all our human encounters.

"And that we may also be given courage to look and listen for that joy in our own depths when the clarity of the good news seems far away and the sky is cloudy."

Dr Williams' remarks were made in a sermon at the International Mass at Lourdes celebrated by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

He is taking part in the first pilgrimage by a Church of England leader to the shrine, a magnet for Roman Catholics, many of them ill or disabled, from all over Europe.

The shrine, in south-west France, is marking the 150th anniversary of the visions.

It was visited earlier this month by Pope Benedict XVI.