Close on 600 people travelled to Lourdes on Sunday, June 1 on the annual Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage. Four planes took the pilgrims to Tarbes Airport just 10km outside Lourdes.

The pilgrimage included over 100 assisted pilgrims who stayed in the Acceueil (Hospital) for the duration of the stay in Lourdes. The assisted pilgrim flight was the second from Cork so by mid-afternoon all were well settled in at Lourdes. We had a Mass at 5 o’clock on Sunday evening and afterwards many paid their first visit to the Grotto. Between the Cloyne youth group, nurses, doctors, handmaidens and brancardiers nearly two hundred volunteers were on duty.

The first 'official' pilgrimage event was 9.30 Mass on the Monday where Bishop Wm Crean and Fr Toby Bluitt, pilgrimage director, welcomed everyone. The theme for this year was 'The Joy of Conversion'. After Mass and the photograph on the steps of the Rosary Basilica we had a Reconciliation Service at 3 o’clock. On Monday night the rain came down as we participated in the torchlight procession at 9pm but the rain didn't dampen the spirits.

For full report, see this week's print & digital edition

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