Pope Benedict XVI may visit Lourdes next May to celebrate the one-hundred-and- fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the southwestern French town, writes Tom Heneghan. Nothing is official, but church sources in France and in Rome point to the familiar signs of papal trip preparations. The invitation has been extended and accepted "in principle", according to the sources. The Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jacques Perrier, has just made a trip to Rome, and Alberto Gasbarri, the Vatican's coordinator of papal journeys, is expected in Lourdes soon.

According to French sources, Pope Benedict could make the trip on 31 May, the Feast of the Visitation. The anniversary of the first apparition - 11 February - would be a cold winter day in the Pyrenean mountains and unfit for a visit. The 18 apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous continued until 16 July 1858 and the shrine is already preparing for the jubilee (see www.lourdes2008.com).

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