Pope Benedict XVI urged more than 150,000 followers at mass Sunday in the French shrine town of Lourdes to hold firm in their faith, telling them “love is stronger than evil.”
The 81-year-old pontiff celebrated an open-air mass to mark the 150th anniversary of what Roman Catholics believe were the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a French peasant girl.
Under clear skies, the pontiff spoke from a white podium set up on a sprawling field near the grotto where the Madonna is said to have appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
The pope urged the faithful to adhere to the teachings of Mary that “tell us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weaknesses and sins.”
“The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us,” he said.
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Pope hails love 'stronger than evil' at Lourdes mass
Pope Benedict XVI urged more than 150,000 followers at mass Sunday in the French shrine town of Lourdes to hold firm in their faith, telling them “love is stronger than evil.”
The 81-year-old pontiff celebrated an open-air mass to mark the 150th anniversary of what Roman Catholics believe were the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a French peasant girl.
Under clear skies, the pontiff spoke from a white podium set up on a sprawling field near the grotto where the Madonna is said to have appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
The pope urged the faithful to adhere to the teachings of Mary that “tell us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weaknesses and sins.”
“The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us,” he said.
Read it all.