Special security measures are in place for France's national pilgrimage to Lourdes after French police and military officials continue to be concerned about the safety of Catholics following the brutal murder of a Catholic parish priest near the northern city of Rouen last month.
Up to 30,000 Catholics are expected to join the national pilgrimage, led by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon. The pilgrimage will include services and processions at 22 churches and chapels over the 128-acre site and culminate in Masses for the feast of the Assumption on Monday. Mathias Terrier, information director of the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes, said Catholic representatives had agreed to the new arrangements in cooperation with local authorities and security services. He said the "discreet but effective" measures could remain in place indefinitely at the Marian shrine.
"It's our duty and responsibility to take account of the complicated current context by ensuring pilgrims are well received," he said in a televised statement. "We have the experience and capacity to manage the necessary logistics. We've been very much affected, collectively, by what's happened," he said. "This is a time when great numbers of people arrive from around the world -- and security is clearly essential if we're to welcome them calmly.
"This is a place of serenity, peace and prayer -- and it will remain so, whatever happens," he added.
Lourdes, close to the Pyrenees mountains, attracts around 5 million visitors annually and has been a place of pilgrimage since 1858, when 14-year-old St. Bernadette Soubirous experienced the first of 18 visions of the Virgin Mary. More than 7,000 miracles have been claimed at the shrine, which is famed as a place of healing. Sixty-eight cures have been confirmed as scientifically inexplicable by its International Medical Committee.
Beatrice Lagarde, an official of the prefecture of Hautes-Pyrenees, said there were no plans to cancel the national pilgrimage and that changes had been kept to a minimum. In a statement, the Lourdes shrine said available access routes had been restricted from 12 to three and advised pilgrims to arrive early for the weekend events.
The increased security follows an attack on Bastille Day celebrations in Nice on 14 July when a local man killed 85 people and injured more than 300 when he drove a hired lorry on to the packed main seaside boulevard and mowed down hundreds of revellers who had just been watching fireworks. And a fortnight later Fr Jacques Hamel, 85, was hacked to death during morning Mass in a church in northern France.
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