Katholische Alternative

Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI-Korrespondent zum Lourdes-Besuch des Papstes:

"There is no other spot in the world where the ill fraternize - in the literal sense of the word - as intensely with the healthy as Lourdes. There is no place where strapping nobles and university professors, wonderful young men and women brimming with health, cheerfully take care of the sick for 16 hours every day, often spending their nights curled up on the floor below the foot-end of their patients' beds.

Lourdes is profoundly counter-cultural. It is a mass gathering of those who affirm the 'you' as opposed to the 'me,' which is why the West's anthropocentric, anti-Catholic and in the final analysis anti-Christian elites find Lourdes so scandalous -- pointing, often dishonestly, to the kitsch that is for sale there.

True, hawking Mary as a pop-top plastic container for holy water or Mary as a cigarette lighter is a grotesque manifestation of bad taste. But that's not what Lourdes is all about. This is not why 6 million women, men and children journey to this idyllic spot in the mountains every year.

Lourdes is about 'praising God for his great gifts;' that's why the handicapped pope joins other handicapped and able-bodied Christians in pilgrimage, according to Bishop Renato Boccardo, the organizer of his trip." (Lourdes 2: Countercultural pilgrimage