The Archbishop, Mgr Pawl Cremona, OP, has returned from Lourdes where, for the first time, he led the national pilgrimage organised each year by the Maltese Society for the Transportation of the Sick to Lourdes.

Mgr Cremona said it had been his second visit to Lourdes, following the first many years ago when he went there with a group. The group he led this time round was about 200-strong.

He saw many miracles in Lourdes, the Archbishop said: the miracle of the sick who went there in search of consolation from the presence of Our Lady; the miracle of the volunteers who paid for their passage to help the sick; of many young people, even from Malta, who were of service to the sick, and of the pilgrims who went to find a telling experience of their faith.

Among other activities, the whole group and other pilgrims from Malta took part in the international Mass last Sunday in the huge basilica dedicated to St Pius X. The reading in English during the Mass was made by Maltese pilgrims, Mgr Mario Camilleri, Dr Joseph G. Borg and the Archbishop himself.