Lourdes: Everything you need to know about Pope Leo XIV's visit
After spending two days in Paris, Leo XIV is set to land at Tarbes Lourdes Pyrénées airport on Saturday evening. He will then begin his visit to Lourdes with Mass at the Massabielle grotto.
Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France this week, marking the first papal visit to the site since Benedict XVI in 2008. Lourdes, a small town nestled in the Pyrenees near the Spanish border, attracts millions of pilgrims every year due to the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
The town now welcomes around three million pilgrims annually and has almost 10,000 hotel rooms to accommodate visitors. The visit of Pope Leo XIV comes at a time when the number of baptisms in France is on the rise, with a 28% increase in adult baptisms over the past five years. During his visit, Pope Leo XIV will hold Mass at the Massabielle grotto and have private talks with seven victims of sexual abuse, a sensitive topic for the Catholic Church in France.
Brief written by urgent.news from Euronews's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
