From 29 April to 4 May Lourdes welcomed some 7000 members and volunteers, including 1500 sick people, coming from 44 countries on five continents. The Grand Master, Fra’ Matthew Festing gave a warm and special greeting to pilgrims from Albania, Kenya, Senegal, Palestine, Syria and Iraq.
In this Jubilee year, there was a great significance in passing through the Door of Mercy at the Saint Michel’s Gate entrance to the sanctuary. Volunteers carried out the rite of passage with the sick people, before gathering in the underground basilica for the Eucharist procession.
The Pontifical Mass was celebrated on Sunday in the Basilica of St. Pius X by Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinalis Patronus, at his second pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Order of Malta.
There were 6 people taking part from the Albanian Organization of the Order of Malta in this pilgrimage, having a sick person in a wheelchair with them.
