LOURDES, France (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI led tens of thousands of people Sunday in celebrating the 150th anniversary of a peasant girl's religious visions in Lourdes, where believers in miracles have since prayed for physical or spiritual healing.
Benedict was giving a late-morning Mass at the Lourdes shrine during a three-day pilgrimage to the sanctuary.
The spot is visited each year by 6 million pilgrims who believe miracles can be delivered by Bernadette Soubirous — the 14-year-old daughter of peasants who in 1858 told local clergy she had seen the Virgin Mary 18 times....