{"id":15554,"date":"2026-09-29T11:47:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15554"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:47:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:47:53","slug":"pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Left: Fabrizio Maffei \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pope Leo XIV traveled over the weekend to Lourdes, France, one of Christianity\u2019s most famous pilgrimage sites, where he prayed for the sick and suffering and met people connected to extraordinary healings that have puzzled doctors.<\/p>\n

Leo arrived in Lourdes Saturday evening during his apostolic visit to France and went to the Grotto of Massabielle, where 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1858. Lourdes has since become a major destination for Christians seeking healing.<\/p>\n

At the grotto, Leo prayed silently, touched the rock and drank water from the spring before praying for France and those who are sick and suffering.<\/p>\n

The pope returned Sunday to celebrate an outdoor Mass before approximately 150,000 people, many of whom were sick or using wheelchairs. He told pilgrims that Lourdes offers hope even amid suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will not leave Lourdes as you arrived,\u201d Leo told pilgrims. \u201cYou will leave as missionaries of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lourdes is perhaps best known for reports of medically unexplained cures. The Catholic Church has recognized only a small number of reported healings as miracles after extensive medical and religious investigations.<\/p>\n

Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, who spent 17 years leading the Lourdes Office of Medical Observation, said the pope\u2019s visit included encounters with people associated with some of those extraordinary cases.<\/p>\n

Among them was Sister Bernadette Moriau, whose recovery from a severe spinal condition was officially recognized by the Catholic Church as a miracle. Other cases highlighted included Antonietta Raco, who reported recovering from primary lateral sclerosis after visiting Lourdes in 2009, and Delizia Cirolli, whose recovery from Ewing sarcoma as a child was later recognized by the Church.<\/p>\n

But de Franciscis said Lourdes cannot be measured only by physical cures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese so-called spiritual cures are so, so much more numerous than the physical ones that we know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That message was also reflected in Leo\u2019s time with sick and disabled pilgrims on Sunday afternoon. The pope visited the Accueil Notre-Dame, a facility that welcomes people with illnesses and disabilities who make pilgrimages to Lourdes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFragility is not hidden here,\u201d Leo told those gathered. \u201cInstead, it becomes the place of a sacred encounter.\u201d The visit also carried a difficult call for healing within the Catholic Church itself. Leo addressed the Church\u2019s failures surrounding clergy sexual abuse and called for repentance, humility and acknowledgment of its \u201cdeep wounds, infidelities and painful errors,\u201d linking the Church\u2019s own healing to Lourdes\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

For millions who have traveled to Lourdes seeking answers, the message extends beyond whether a physical cure occurs.<\/p>\n

As Leo put it during his visit, \u201cThe miracle of Lourdes\u201d can be found in awakening hope in the midst of suffering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV traveled over the weekend to Lourdes, France, one of Christianity\u2019s most famous pilgrimage sites, where he prayed for the sick and suffering and met people connected to extraordinary healings that have puzzled doctors. Leo arrived in Lourdes Saturday evening during his apostolic visit to France and went to the Grotto of Massabielle,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pope Leo visits Lourdes, meeting people whose remarkable healings stunned doctors and were later recognized as miracles by the Church.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pope Leo visits Lourdes, meeting people whose remarkable healings stunned doctors and were later recognized as miracles by the Church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-29T15:47:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Pope-Leo-XIV_credit-Left-Fabrizio-Maffei-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Contributors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings","description":"Pope Leo visits Lourdes, meeting people whose remarkable healings stunned doctors and were later recognized as miracles by the Church.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings","og_description":"Pope Leo visits Lourdes, meeting people whose remarkable healings stunned doctors and were later recognized as miracles by the Church.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2026-09-29T15:47:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Pope-Leo-XIV_credit-Left-Fabrizio-Maffei-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beliefnet Contributors","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html","name":"Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Pope-Leo-XIV_credit-Left-Fabrizio-Maffei-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-09-29T15:47:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-29T15:47:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Pope Leo visits Lourdes, meeting people whose remarkable healings stunned doctors and were later recognized as miracles by the Church.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Pope-Leo-XIV_credit-Left-Fabrizio-Maffei-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/09\/Pope-Leo-XIV_credit-Left-Fabrizio-Maffei-Shutterstock-Right-Shutterstock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Left: Fabrizio Maffei \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/09\/pope-leo-visits-lourdes-meets-people-behind-remarkable-miracle-healings.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, Meets People Behind Remarkable \u2018Miracle\u2019 Healings"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15563,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554\/revisions\/15563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}