Priest appeals for better transport for pilgrims traveling to Lourdes

      OXFORD, England (CNS) -- The head of an Italian pilgrimage organization has appealed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to tackle the growing problems faced by pilgrims traveling by train to Lourdes in southwestern France.
      "For several years, we have faced many difficulties, notably in transporting sick people," said Father Luciano Mainini, secretary-general of the Italian Pilgrimages Secretariat, a group of 40 Italian pilgrimage organizations. "We can no longer accept being placed behind freight trains. Nor can we accept that this is tolerated in the country where modern civil rights originated."
      In an open letter to Sarkozy, the priest said the SNCF, the French national railway company, provides the "sole means of transport" to Lourdes for most sick pilgrims and needs urgent improvement.
      He said pilgrimage organizers had faced "more and more major obstacles," including sudden timetable changes and long delays, as well as annual 10 percent to 15 percent tax hikes.
      "You know well that Lourdes is a special sanctuary where the sick should take first place and people receive a welcome which meets their material and spiritual needs," Father Mainini said.
      He noted that the transport problems ran "totally contrary to the spirit and principles of the European Union."
      "Respect for human beings is not a religious matter -- it arises from the advancement of humanity, particularly when those human beings are suffering," said the Italian priest.
      Catherine Albrech, spokeswoman for the Tarbes and Lourdes Diocese, said the EU's transport commissioner, Jacques Barrot, had promised an investigation in 2006. She added that the SNCF had since appointed a special Lourdes coordinator.
      "However, although the network seems aware of the situation, there's been no overall improvement," Albrech said in a Feb. 28 telephone interview with Catholic News Service. "As patron of the SNCF, the president appoints the rail bosses. When the new pilgrimage begins in mid-March, we hope the company will understand the damage being done to its image in this jubilee year."
      Other church leaders have criticized the poor transportation to Lourdes. Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium, accused the train network of charging exorbitant fares and showing "a lack of concern for destinations considered less commercially profitable."
      French newspapers reported recently that sick pilgrims from Antwerp, Belgium, had been diverted by mistake to Switzerland.
      Lourdes attracts more than 6 million pilgrims annually and will host a visit by Pope Benedict XVI in September for its jubilee year, marking the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions to St. Bernadette Soubirous. The jubilee began last Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and ends this Dec. 8.

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