This Easter, along with approximately 5,000 others, I descended upon Lourdes in the south of France. It was once a tiny village but now welcomes over 6 million pilgrims a year who come to the place where Mary is said to have appeared to a young girl named Bernadette. HCPT — The Pilgrimage Trust — was set up approximately 40 years ago by a doctor who wanted to take children with special needs on pilgrimage, yet putting them up in hotels and encouraging them to participate fully in the Lourdes experience. Since the 50s the trust has grown and grown. There is now an independent Trust in Ireland, and groups have been set up in the United States, the West Indies and Slovakia to name but a few.

HCPT is a unique experience. Each group is a small family type unit of not more than about twenty people and has a leader, a chaplain and nurse or doctor, plus a helper to each child. They stay in a hotel and throughout the week participate in various activities. Groups may trek up and down the hill to do the stations of the Cross (you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get a wheelchair to go slowly down a hill!), play football in the fields, visit the grotto, or go for a picnic or pony rides up in the mountains. Each day each group has their own mass. Every child is encouraged to take a full part regardless of their denomination, whether it's playing a tambourine very loudly or reading. This year one of the most beautiful moments for me was when a young girl named Victoria, who had been knocked down in a car accident (and subsequently had a tracheostomy, due to which she was unable to speak out loud) read at Mass. However, as she went to read the room became silent and not one of the children fidgeted. Her smile when she had finished, a smile that showed how much she had achieved and how she felt so valued, was amazingly powerful, something I will never forget. Lourdes is not about miracle cures, it is about giving dignity and respect to every individual. Those who may be viewed in our culture as worthless or pitiful are able to show what they can truly achieve and have their contribution valued. What is amazing is the impact the children have upon you as a helper. Not one of the children felt sorry for themselves and they gave me a vitality to seize life and make what I can of it.

After interviewing Emma Hansford about the work of Life last term, I realised how important groups such as HCPT are. HCPT not only gives children a wonderful week, it also gives parents and the child’s siblings a break too. Lourdes is a wonderful example of the love God desired us to show to one another. It is full of adults and children singing and smiling. The Trust Mass, when the branches of the Trust from all over the world come together, is for me the full sense of hope for a universal Church. It embraces the need to show the utmost respect towards everyone, and to find Christ in everyone.

Kate Adams