Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

“The focus must be on providing care, not providing a cheap death,” Scotland’s bishops declared. Photo of the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh. / Credit: Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 19, 2024 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

Scotland’s Catholic bishops have issued a strong condemnation of the country’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults bill, saying in a statement to the government that it “provides a quick, cheap alternative” to care and risks coercing the vulnerable and elderly into feeling a “duty to die.”

Along with the rest of the United Kingdom, assisted suicide is currently illegal in Scotland. However, if passed the bill would allow terminally ill adults over 16 to be provided with assistance in ending their own lives.

The bill was introduced in March by Scottish Parliament member Liam McArthur, who has voiced that this would allow greater “autonomy, dignity, and control” over patients’ end of life and “help to make Scotland a more compassionate society.”

Assisted suicide is the act of making the means of suicide available to the patient, who subsequently acts on his or her own. In many cases, a doctor or other authorized health care professional will be authorized to prescribe the patient a lethal dose of medication, which the patient administers to himself or herself.

The Catholic Church opposes assisted suicide because it is “gravely contrary to the just love of self” and “contrary to love for the living God.”

In their statement to the government, Scotland’s 10 Catholic bishops voiced grave concerns with the bill, saying it erodes human dignity and undermines efforts to reduce suicide and give terminally ill patients true palliative — pain relieving — care.

The measure stipulates that a patient would need to receive the assessment of two doctors who both agree he or she is mentally fit and is acting free of coercion. The bishops, however, said assisted suicide presents an inherent risk of coercing vulnerable people.

They pointed to a recent study in the state of Oregon that found that more than 40% of people who obtained assisted-suicide drugs listed the burden on their family, friends, and caregivers as a reason for seeking to take their life.

“This suggests that society is failing those most in need of help and support, resulting in vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, feeling pressure to end their lives to lessen the impact on family, friends, carers, and the state,” the bishops said. “In such situations the option of assisted suicide becomes less about having a ‘right’ to die and more about feeling the full weight and expectation of a ‘duty’ to die.”

“The proposal, to be blunt, provides a quick, cheap alternative to good palliative care,” the bishops wrote. “This is supported by claims in Mr. McArthur’s proposal for a bill, which chillingly conceded that it is cheaper to end life than to provide care. The focus must be on providing care, not providing a cheap death.”

The bishops also expressed their concern that the legalization of assisted suicide for certain groups would inevitably open the door to further expansion for more individuals and groups.

The bishops asserted that “no one should be eligible for assisted dying.”

“No matter how well-intentioned the safeguards are, it is impossible for any government to draft assisted-suicide laws which include legal protection from future expansion of those laws,” they said. “Once a law permitting assisted suicide and/or euthanasia is established, so-called safeguards will be eroded and eligibility criteria expanded to create a system of death on demand and death by prescription, facilitated by the state.”

“As evidenced in other jurisdictions, it is a runaway train,” they added.

There are currently 11 U.S. states that allow assisted suicide and there are several more considering passing bills to legalize the practice.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce. / Credit: ADF UK

CNA Newsroom, Aug 19, 2024 / 11:19 am (CNA).

West Midlands Police have paid 13,000 pounds (about $16,800) in compensation to Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the Christian volunteer who was twice arrested for praying silently near an abortion facility in Birmingham, England.

The settlement comes as the U.K. government is reportedly set to strengthen its crackdown on silent prayer near abortion facilities by expressly labeling it as “criminal” in upcoming nationwide “buffer zone” legislation.

Vaughan-Spruce, director of March for Life UK, was first arrested in December 2022 for silently praying within a public space protection order (PSPO) zone outside a closed abortion facility.

The PSPO prohibited “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users,” which local authorities interpreted to include silent prayer.

In February 2023, Vaughan-Spruce was acquitted of all charges related to this incident. However, she was arrested again in March 2023 for the same activity.

“Silent prayer is not a crime. Nobody should be arrested merely for the thoughts they have in their heads — yet this happened to me twice at the hands of the West Midlands Police, who explicitly told me that ‘prayer is an offense,’” Vaughan-Spruce said in a statement released by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) UK, the legal organization supporting her case.

The compensation from West Midlands Police acknowledges the unjust treatment and breach of Vaughan-Spruce’s human rights.

ADF UK reported that Vaughan-Spruce had issued a claim against the police for “two wrongful arrests and false imprisonments; assault and battery in relation to an intrusive search of her person; and for a breach of her human rights both in respect to the arrests and to the onerous bail conditions imposed on her.”

Despite this victory, concerns remain about potential future violations of religious freedom and freedom of thought. 

The U.K. government is set to implement nationwide “buffer zones” around abortion facilities, which could lead to further arrests for silent prayer or offering help to women considering abortion. 

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK, commented on the broader implications: “The fact that the government is reportedly set to name ‘silent prayer’ as a criminal offense, brazenly contrary to their commitment to international human rights law, exposes the crisis of free speech and thought in the U.K. today.”

Lord David Frost, a senior Conservative peer and former cabinet minister, expressed alarm at the developments, according to ADF: “It is incredible that people have been arrested for thought crime in modern Britain. I am very glad Ms. Vaughan-Spruce has received compensation for her unjust arrest for this so-called offense.”

Galway Bishop Michael Duignan said in a statement on Friday that the news of the stabbing of a Catholic chaplain was “deeply shocking and upsetting.” / Credit: Olliebailie, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 16, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Military authorities in Ireland are investigating the stabbing of a Catholic chaplain as a potential terrorist attack, according to media reports on Friday. 

Father Paul Murphy was reportedly stabbed multiple times on Thursday outside of Renmore Army Barracks in the coastal town of Galway.

The 50-year-old priest sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries from the attack and was taken to nearby University Hospital Galway for treatment.

A 16-year-old was reportedly arrested in connection with the attack.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said on X on Friday that he had been “briefed on the shocking incident outside Renmore Barracks last night & my thoughts are with the member of the defence forces in hospital.” 

“I want to thank defence forces personnel & Gardai for their action and response,” the prime minister said. 

The Irish Independent, meanwhile, reported that the incident is being investigated as a possible terror attack. 

Irish gardai “are trying to establish if there was a terror link” to the attack, the news outlet reported on Friday. 

Police “are investigating whether the teenager may have made comments at the scene of the stabbing about Irish military involvement in the Middle East before he was brought away by officers,” the Independent said. 

Galway Bishop Michael Duignan said in a statement on Friday that the news was “deeply shocking and upsetting.”

“I pray for the injured man, asking God that he would make a full recovery,” the bishop said. “I pray too for his family, for his army colleagues and for the medical personnel who are tending to his injuries at this time.”

On Facebook on Friday, meanwhile, Murphy offered thanks to supporters “for your prayers, love, and concern.” 

“Sorry that I can’t reply to all messages and take all the calls coming my way,” the priest wrote. “I’m doing okay; just awaiting surgery.”

“All will be well,” he added.

This is a developing story.

The Sistine Chapel. / Credit: marcobrivio.photography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 15, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 15, 1483, Pope Sixtus IV consecrated the Sistine Chapel to Our Lady of the Assumption. Today, as we celebrate the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, let’s take a closer look at this historic chapel.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel is known for its magnificently frescoed ceilings, but it also serves an important function as the place where the cardinals meet to elect a new pope.

Here are five things to know:

1. Where did the chapel get its name?

The chapel derives its name from the man who consecrated it: Pope Sixtus IV, who served as the Roman pontiff from 1471 to 1484. He commissioned the restoration of the Cappella Magna, the chapel that stood where the Sistine Chapel stands today.

2. Who painted the frescoes?

The artist most famously connected with the Sistine Chapel is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. However, it wasn’t until several years after a team of artists began work on the chapel that Pope Julius II commissioned work from Michelangelo. 

Between 1481 and 1482, four artists — Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Rosselli — worked on the chapel’s frescoes. These artists were assisted by their shops in painting the walls with false drapes, the stories of Moses and Christ, as well as portraits of the popes. 

Michelangelo painted the chapel ceiling and the lunettes on the upper part of the walls. Perhaps the most famous fresco in the chapel is his “Creation of Adam,” which portrays God in the form of a man surrounded by angels and wrapped in a mantle, reaching toward Adam, while Adam reaches back up to God. 

3. Michelangelo was telling a story.

The “Creation of Adam,” although a focal point of the ceiling, is part of nine frescoes depicting different stories from the Book of Genesis. The stories are separated into groups of three. 

4. Pope John Paul II, the Sistine Chapel, and theology of the body

Walking into the Sistine Chapel, one might be surprised to see the many nude figures in the frescoes. During Mass in the Sistine Chapel on April 8, 1994, Pope John Paul II called the chapel a “sanctuary of the theology of the human body.”

The late pope and now saint said in his homily: “It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be guided by the evocative words of the Book of Genesis which, as regards the creation of the human being, male and female, reveals: ‘The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.’”

“The Sistine Chapel is precisely — if one may say so — the sanctuary of the theology of the human body,” he added. “In witnessing to the beauty of man created by God as male and female, it also expresses in a certain way the hope of a world transfigured, the world inaugurated by the risen Christ, and even before by Christ on Mount Tabor.”

5. One can take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel.

It’s possible to visit the Sistine Chapel without leaving the house. The website for the Vatican Museums allows one to virtually stroll through the chapel and zoom in on the details of each fresco.

The experience is not quite the same as being physically present, but visitors can take their time examining the frescoes without the usual crowds.

Bonus fact: 

There is a spray-painted replica of the Sistine Chapel in the United States. Located in Waterloo, Iowa, at 622 Commercial St., Cappella Magna can be rented out for functions. 

“Welcome to Capella Magna, Iowa’s newly imagined premiere destination venue!” the organization’s description says. “Experience the only replica of the Sistine Chapel in the world. Host your corporate event, office party, wedding, or anniversary in the splendor and elegance of Michelangelo’s masterpiece reimagined by Waterloo’s own, Paco Rosic.”

The description says the venue seats 68 people in the main hall and 50 people in another area of the venue. Photos can be seen on the venue’s Facebook page.

This article was previously published on Aug. 14, 2023, and has been updated.

Our Lady of Lourdes grotto, Lourdes, France. / Credit: Elise Harris/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 14, 2024 / 17:22 pm (CNA).

The French government is urging “extreme vigilance” in the face of a “very high” terrorist threat to religious demonstrations and places of worship on the solemnity of the Assumption, one of the most holy days in the Catholic calendar.

Gérald Darmanin, the French minister of the interior, warned regional officials in a Tuesday message through the messenger app Telegram that the country is in a “very high level of terrorist threat.” He specified that “services, gatherings, processions, and pilgrimages” at sites traditionally associated with Marian devotion face particular danger, according to French news outlet BFMTV.

Darmanin informed regional prefects that “extreme vigilance must be maintained, particularly with regard to demonstrations and places of a religious nature.” He advised government officials to be in constant contact with religious sites and to deploy extra security forces to “more sensitive” locations.

According to BFMTV, the French minister of the interior instructed local officials to advise Christian leaders on preventative security measures to detect suspicious individuals or vehicles in front of places of worship. 

The French government is also reportedly likely to deploy its anti-terrorist Opération Sentinelle forces at key pilgrimage sites, such as the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, where more than 30,000 faithful are expected to gather on the feast of the Assumption.

The solemnity of the Assumption celebrates the Blessed Virgin Mary being assumed, body and soul, into heaven. In France, one of the oldest Catholic countries in the world, the feast of the Assumption is a public holiday. It is usually marked by Masses and public processions.

Darmanin said that the high alert is partially due to France’s ongoing international exposure as host of the 2024 Olympics and the upcoming Paralympic Games and to “strong tensions on the international level, in particular in the Middle East.”

Due to continued terrorist threats, France has been under its highest threat security posture since March 24.

According to the humanitarian group Human Rights Without Frontiers International, there were nearly 1,000 acts of terror and intimidation against Christians in France in 2023. This past Easter the French government deployed 13,500 police officers and anti-terrorism forces to thousands of Catholic and Protestant places of worship across the country, according to Radio France Internationale.

In July, a series of coordinated arson attacks temporarily crippled train travel into Paris, impacting approximately 800,000 travelers right before the start of the Olympics. No one was hurt in the attacks.

St. Maximilian Kolbe. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons/public domain

CNA Staff, Aug 14, 2024 / 16:06 pm (CNA).

Aug. 14 is the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a saint best known for his heroic martyrdom at Auschwitz in 1941, when he volunteered to be executed in place of another prisoner. 

Like many Catholic saints, there exist today relics of Father Kolbe — pieces of a saint’s body (first-class) or objects they owned (second-class) that are honored by the Catholic faithful because of the saint’s closeness to God.

But in Kolbe’s case, the only part of his body that still exists is his signature long beard, which a fellow friar managed to save before the saint’s death. The rest of his body was incinerated in the ovens of Auschwitz after the Nazis murdered him.

Today, relics of Kolbe’s beard hold special significance for Father John Paul Mary, MFVA, who serves as EWTN employee chaplain. The friars of the Francscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word keep a relic of Kolbe’s beard, gifted to EWTN, on the television set while taping their weekly EWTN show “Life on the Rock.” (EWTN is the parent company of CNA.)

Kolbe, also a Franciscan friar, chose to keep the beard he had grown upon his return from six years of missionary work in Japan. In those days, it was customary for missionaries to grow long beards, and Kolbe wanted to keep it as a reminder of his missionary days and as a reminder to always be a “missionary” of the Gospel.

Kolbe eventually, after the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, made the decision to shave so as not to stand out. Kolbe’s founding of the Militia Immaculata (MI), an evangelization movement identifying with Mary, had put him high on Nazi watchlists. 

After a fellow friar cut off Kolbe’s beard for him, the friar at first tried to save the beard, but Kolbe objected and told him to throw it in the stove. So, obediently, the friar threw it into the stove, but the fire was not lit, so the friar later retrieved it and stored it in a pickle jar, where it was later rediscovered and identified thanks to the label the friar had put on the jar.

“There’s something in particular in his life that mirrors the life of Christ. It’s like that lamp that can’t be kept under a bushel basket but has to be kept up high so that others may see the light,” Father John Paul told CNA.

“I think that’s true in every single saint … not just canonized saints, but really every single human person, all the baptized, have a particular grace that God wants to work in and through them.”

Kolbe’s inspiring example of love and charity during his imprisonment and death by carbolic acid injection have led many to seek his intercession for those battling substance abuse. Father John Paul said he frequently prays for those struggling with addiction when he is before Kolbe’s relic and that the friars work with recovering drug addicts through the Catholic ministry Comunità Cenacolo. 

Father John Paul drew a comparison between St. Maximilian Kolbe and Mother Angelica, the foundress of EWTN, emphasizing their shared vision of harnessing modern media for evangelization. Mother Angelica founded EWTN in 1981 as a television station aimed at sharing the Catholic faith, building it over the decades into the largest religious media network in the world — similar to how Kolbe tirelessly utilized the then-modern forms of media like magazines, pamphlets, and radio to spread the Gospel from the monastery he established at Niepokalanów, Poland.

In addition, Father John Paul said Kolbe’s spiritual practices — such as making frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and his promotion of consecration to Jesus through Mary — align with the Franciscan spirituality practiced by the friars at EWTN.

When praying with relics, Father John Paul noted that the saints, who are in God’s presence in heaven, serve as a conduit through which God’s light shines, guiding the faithful toward holiness — a goal for every Catholic to strive toward. 

“The relics of the saints are really the treasure of the Church. That’s what the saints are, the treasure of the Church,” Father John Paul said. 

“The lives of the saints give us, I think, a ray of light of Christ’s life and death and his resurrection … I think that’s really the story of [Kolbe’s] life,” he continued. 

“It’s laying down his life in charity and love for another man. That’s the Gospel message. No greater love than a man has than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And Jesus is the supreme example of that.”

After 400 years, the Valencia Cathedral hass reintroduced the performance of the “Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin” drama as part of the basilica’s festivities to celebrate the Aug.15 Marian solemnity. / Credit: Rachel Thomas

Rome Newsroom, Aug 14, 2024 / 15:36 pm (CNA).

After 400 years, the Valencia Cathedral has reintroduced the performance of the “Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin” drama as part of the basilica’s festivities to celebrate the Aug. 15 Marian solemnity.

Father Álvaro Almenar, canon of the Valencia Cathedral — officially called the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, Holy Mary, of Valencia — expressed his hope that the revival of the 15th-century play performed Tuesday evening will help Catholics better understand the Marian dogma of the Assumption affirmed by Pope Pius XII in 1950, which declares that the Virgin Mary did not undergo human decay but was assumed body and soul to heaven at the end of her earthly life.

“It is like a small catechesis of what we celebrate in the liturgy, which aims to help us understand this mystery of the transit of the Virgin to heaven,” Almenar said in an article published by the cathedral.

Until this year, the “Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin” play was banned in the cathedral following the 1631 Synod of Bishops, which prohibited the recitation of poetic texts and the performance of dramatic representations in temples.

Together with Grup de Mecha, a nonprofit cultural association aimed at reviving and promoting civic and religious traditions in Valencia, Almenar organized the reenactment of the assumption of Mary into heaven to take place inside the cathedral after an intensive five-year study into the late medieval play.

The Aug. 13 reenactment of the assumption of Mary at the Valencia Cathedral is considered to be an “auto sacramental” (“sacramental act”), a genre of drama linked to Catholic rituals and traditions that first developed in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Roberto Bermell, first vice president of Grup de Mecha, said the project to bring back the “Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin” to the cathedral also holds a wider cultural significance for the people of the east coast province of Spain.

“We want to recover, conserve, and maintain the cultural, civic, and religious traditions in Valencia because they are our roots and our identity as a people,” he explained in an online article published by Valencia Cathedral.

Fourteen actors connected to the Grup de Mecha played the roles of the Virgin Mary, the Twelve Apostles, and an angel in the 2024 adaptation of the “Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin” drama, which was divided into six scenes and included musical interludes. 

According to the play’s director and author, Carles Bori, next year’s performance will include a completed and finalized musical composition reminiscent of the 15th-century musical heritage of Spain.

The historical reintroduction of the “Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin” at the cathedral was attended by thousands of spectators on Tuesday evening to commence the city’s annual religious celebrations marking the Marian solemnity.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the 16th Annual General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Aug 14, 2024 / 12:58 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg has called for a comprehensive investigation into the 61 million euro ($67.2 million) embezzlement scandal at Caritas Luxembourg, one of the country’s largest Catholic charities.

The organization faces a crisis of trust just weeks before a scheduled papal visit.

The cardinal, according to Domradio, expressed “deep indignation” over the misappropriation of funds in a statement released Monday evening.

“It is now the task of the crisis committee to create all the conditions for renewed trust,” Hollerich said, emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability in the wake of the scandal.

The financial irregularities, which came to light in July, involved the alleged theft of 61 million euros (approximately $67.2 million) from Caritas Luxembourg over five months. Investigators suspect a former employee orchestrated more than 100 unauthorized transfers to Spanish bank accounts.

The Caritas scandal has cast a shadow over Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Luxembourg. The Holy Father is scheduled to briefly stop in the Grand Duchy on Sept. 26 before his trip to Belgium. 

The case has prompted a swift reaction from Luxembourg’s government, which had provided 29 million euros (about $32 million) to Caritas this year before the embezzlement was uncovered. 

Initially suspending all payments, Prime Minister Luc Frieden’s office indicated on Tuesday that funding might resume for certain unaffected Caritas entities “under specific conditions.”

Caritas Luxembourg employs approximately 500 people and has moved to reassure its staff and beneficiaries. The organization has guaranteed that August salaries will be paid and essential services will continue without interruption.

A crisis committee is currently in discussion with Frieden. Their goal is to ensure a “rapid return to stability for employees and beneficiaries” while addressing the systemic issues that allowed the embezzlement to occur.

In response to the crisis, Caritas Luxembourg announced on Aug. 6 a significant restructuring plan. The organization will create two new entities to oversee its national and international activities, set to begin operations in September. This decision aims to restore donor confidence while allowing investigations to move forward unimpeded.

St. Maximilian Kolbe. / Credit: Nancy Bauer/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Aug 14, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

As World War II raged around him in Poland, St. Maximilian Kolbe fought for souls using a printing press and another “weapon” — the Miraculous Medal.

“Even though a person be the worst sort, if only he agrees to wear the medal, give it to him … and then pray for him, and at the proper moment strive to bring him closer to his Immaculate Mother, so that he have recourse to her in all difficulties and temptations,” Kolbe said of the Miraculous Medal.

“This is truly our heavenly weapon,” the saint said, describing the medal as “a bullet with which a faithful soldier hits the enemy, i.e. evil, and thus rescues souls.”

The Miraculous Medal is a sacramental inspired by the Marian apparition to St. Catherine Labouré in Paris in 1830. The Virgin Mary appeared to Labouré as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe with light streaming from her hands and crushing a serpent under her foot.

“A voice said to me, ‘Have a medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck,’” Labouré said.

As a Franciscan seminarian studying in Rome in 1917, Kolbe was moved by the story of the role the Miraculous Medal played in the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne.

Ratisbonne was a French Freemason and an atheist of Jewish descent who received the grace of conversion while wearing a Miraculous Medal given to him by one of his Catholic friends in Rome. The Virgin Mary appeared to Ratisbonne on Jan. 20, 1842, in a side chapel in the Church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte in Rome.

St. Maximilian Kolbe chose to celebrate his first Mass on April 29, 1918, in the side chapel in Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, where the Virgin Mary appeared to Ratisbonne.

Ratisbonne went on to be ordained a Jesuit priest and eventually left the order to move to Jerusalem in 1855 to found a convent for sisters in the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, a congregation founded to “to witness in the Church and in the world that God continues to be faithful in his love for the Jewish people.”

Kolbe went on to give his life in place of a fellow prisoner in Auschwitz, a man who had a wife and children. He died of a carbolic acid injection in the concentration camp Aug. 14, 1941. The Nazi officials cremated Kolbe’s body on the feast of the Assumption of Mary.

Kolbe is known for being an effective evangelist and missionary. Before moving to Japan in 1930, Kolbe made a pilgrimage to the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal on Rue de Bac in Paris.

Pope John Paul II remembered Kolbe’s visit when he prayed in the Paris chapel in 1980.

“I come as a pilgrim, after all those who came to this chapel in 150 years, like all Christians who flock here every day to express their joy, their trust, and their supplications. I come as Blessed Maximilian Kolbe: Before his missionary journey to Japan, just 50 years ago, he came here to seek your support to propagate what he later called ‘the Militia of the Immaculate’ and undertake his prodigious work of spiritual renewal under your patronage, before giving his life for his brothers,” John Paul II said.

Kolbe formed the Militia Immaculata in 1917 to “lead every individual with Mary to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” He asked all Militia Immaculata members to wear the Miraculous Medal as a sign of their total consecration to Mary.

“Now in this epoch of the Immaculate Conception the most Blessed Virgin has given mankind the ‘Miraculous Medal.’ Its heavenly origin has been proven by countless miracles of healing and particularly of conversion,” Kolbe wrote.

“The Immaculata herself in revealing it promised all who would wear it very many graces; and since conversion and sanctification are divine graces from God, the Miraculous Medal will be one of the best means for attaining these gifts,” he said.

Kolbe also added to St. Catherine’s prayer associated with the sacramental: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.” To this, Kolbe added: “And for all who do not have recourse to you, especially the enemies of the Church and those recommended to you. Amen.”

This article was originally published on CNA on Aug. 14, 2019, and has been updated.

Our Lady of Lourdes grotto, Lourdes, France. / Credit: Elise Harris/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Aug 13, 2024 / 09:08 am (CNA).

The baths at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France have fully reopened for the first time in four years for France’s national pilgrimage for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary this week. 

More than 30,000 pilgrims are expected in Lourdes for the Aug. 15 feast day, according to the news station Europe 1. The weeklong celebration will culminate in a Mass and candlelight rosary procession with thousands of sick in wheelchairs leading the way. 

The immersion pools at Lourdes have been closed since 2020 due first to the pandemic and later to renovation work. During the closure, pilgrims were invited to participate in a “water gesture” by washing their face, hands, and forearms with holy water from the miraculous spring.

 The return of the possibility of full immersion in the sacred water has been welcomed by the thousands of sick, disabled, and volunteers taking part in France’s 151st national pilgrimage for the Assumption solemnity.

“It is a return to normal,” Father Sébastien Anthony, the president of the pilgrimage, told a French radio station. 

“Our teams have mobilized to make this possible, so that we can welcome the sick and pilgrims with dignity,” he added. 

During the pilgrimage, which lasts from Aug. 12–16, the swimming pools will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. with more than 3,000 people volunteering to enable as many pilgrims as possible to wash in the baths and take part in the processions, according to the pilgrimage organizers.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most visited religious shrines in the world, attracting more than 5 million visitors each year. It marks the site where a young St. Bernadette Soubirous witnessed 18 Marian apparitions beginning on Feb. 11, 1858.

During the ninth apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary told Bernadette: “Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there.” The miraculous spring that appeared after Bernadette humbly dug in the dirt with her hands resulted in the healing of a woman with a paralyzed hand in the presence of more than 1,500 people in 1858. 

Since then, doctors on the International Medical Committee of Lourdes have certified 70 medical cures from the spring as being “unexplained on the basis of current medical knowledge.” 

The most recent medical miracle at Lourdes took place in 2008 when Sister Bernadette Moriau was cured of total paralysis resulting from cauda equina syndrome, a disorder of the nerves and lower spine.

The Marian shrine also places an emphasis on spiritual healing through the sacrament of reconciliation, offering confessions in French, Italian, English, Spanish, German, Dutch, and other languages in response to Our Lady of Lourdes’ request to Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners.

More than 7,000 people have reported that they experienced a physical healing because of a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.