Hundreds of pilgrims travel to Lourdes from Ireland

Hundreds of people from parishes across Dublin headed to Lourdes in France last Thursday for the annual diocesan pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage group included 109 sick pilgrims, 14 doctors, 50 nurses, 600 helpers and 30 priests. The 600 helpers included 250 young people, with 150 of those being sixth year students from 30 secondary schools.

Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell led the five day pilgrimage, which has travelled to Lourdes almost every year since 1949.  In 1953, a rail strike in France saw the pilgrimage cancelled.  And in 2020 and 2021, the Covid-19 restrictions prevented the Dublin group from travelling.

In his homily at the Marian grotto, Archbishop Farrell said, “To come to Lourdes on pilgrimage is an act of hope. We mightn’t express it like that to our friends, or even see it that way ourselves, but beneath the surface, in its deeper reality, it is hope that brings us here.  Yes, our faith brings us here, and charity and the service it entails bring us here, but most of all, to come on pilgrimage to Lourdes is to put flesh on hope.  To come to Lourdes is to live out our hope.”

Separately, Bishop of Achonry-Elphin Kevin Doran, on his own diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, said he was “absolutely convinced” that if the Church wants to have adult Catholics in the future, “we must welcome the participation of children in the liturgy” and form them in an age-appropriate way for a deeper understanding of what the Eucharist is.

He expressed regret that so many parishes have abandoned the ministry of serving Mass.

“This is not simply about fetching and carrying. The Mass is not all about the priest,” he said at the grotto in Lourdes, telling assembled pilgrims that the exercise of ministry by the lay faithful, when it is well done, enhances the liturgy and helps to deepen the faith of those who are involved.

“The ministry of serving Mass not only provides young people with the privilege of coming closer to Jesus in the Eucharist; it also gives us the opportunity to form young people in a deeper understanding of what Eucharist is.”

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