How Lourdes has become the ‘Disneyland of God’
Lourdes is of course the ‘holy place’ in France, where many people (including from England) travel, in the hope of finding a cure to incurable diseases. But critics say that of late, it has become a ‘Disneyland of God’. Selling glow-in-the-dark statues of the Virgin Mary, along with plastic bottles of ‘healing water’.
Critics say that the huge prices charged to often vulnerable families with children in wheelchairs for life, has made a mockery of religion. The town generates almost £300 million in profits, often for luxury hotels.
Many Catholics visit the shrine for a miracle cure. Of course, the question is why some people get cured, and others don’t. Situated at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains, the town itself has just 15,000 people but around 5 million people visit each year.
It is here that it’s said the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision to a young teenage peasant girl who was eventually made into St Bernadette by the Pope.
She had several visions near a well (which is where people visit to bathe or drink the waters). And although she herself died young from TB, her body was exhumed more than once, with people amazed that she was almost mummified, rather than her body decomposed.
Since the visions at Lourdes, there have been some confirmed ‘miracles’ at Lourdes, but only 70 (not many considering the millions of people who visit). Others say that it is the faith and prayer, rather than the water, that may have helped.
