Paris, France, May 23, 2007 / 11:10 am
Sources with the Bishops’ Conference of France announced this Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted an invitation in principle to visit France in 2008.
Nonetheless, conference officials noted that the possibility that the visit by the Holy Father would take place in May of 2008, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to St. Bernadette Soubirous was only “a hypothesis that must be studied.”
The invitation to the Holy Father was sent by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Richard, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France and by Bishop Jacques Perrier of Lourdes.