Pope Francis has sent a
special envoy to Lourdes to accentuate the spiritual over the
business side of the famed Marian shrine.
Msgr Antoine Hérouard, the auxiliary bishop of Lille, will be
tasked with privileging the spiritual role of the shrine to Mary
over "the management and financial sphere," said Vatican media
director Andrea Tornielli.
Hérouard has been given a special brief "for the care of the
pilgrims".
Vatican watchers said the move was like putting Lourdes under
a special commissioner.
The pope recently made a similar move on the shrine of
Medjugorie in Bosnia.
In 1858 Lourdes rose to prominence in France and abroad due
to the Marian apparitions claimed to have been seen by the
peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who was later canonized.
Shortly thereafter the city with the Sanctuary of Our Lady of
Lourdes became one of the world's most important sites of
pilgrimage and religious tourism.
Today Lourdes hosts around six million visitors every year
from all corners of the world.
This constant stream of pilgrims and tourists transformed
quiet Lourdes into the second most important center of tourism
in France, second only to Paris, and the third most important
site of international Catholic pilgrimage after Rome and the
Holy Land.
As of 2011, of French cities only Paris had more hotel
capacity.
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