"The Pope was duty bound to come to Lourdes to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions,” he said. “Before the Grotto of Massabielle, I prayed for all of you. I prayed for the Church. I prayed for France and for the world.”
Similar to all other pilgrims, the Holy Father explained, “I completed all four stages of the Jubilee Way, visiting the parish church, the Cachot and the Grotto, and finally the chapel of the hospital. I also prayed with and for the sick who come here to seek physical relief and spiritual hope. God does not forget them, and neither does the Church. Like every faithful pilgrim, I wanted to take part in the torchlight procession and the Blessed Sacrament procession. They carry aloft to God our prayers and our praise," he reminded.
Benedict XVI also recalled how he shared with French bishops "my conviction that the times are favorable for a return to God."
"May God bless France!" he cried. "May harmony and human progress reign on her soil, and may the Church be the leaven in the dough that indicates with wisdom and without fear, according to her specific duty, who God is!"
After expressing his desire to return to France in the future, the Holy Father promised that "From Rome I shall remain close to you, and when I pray before the replica of the Lourdes Grotto which has been in the Vatican Gardens for a little over a century, I shall think of you."
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Minutes later, Pope Benedict boarded his flight and departed, arriving two hours later at Rome’s Ciampino airport. From there, the Holy Father traveled to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.