Ailing Pope Journeys to Mountain Shrine
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Pope John Paul II joined thousands of other ailing pilgrims at a cliff-side shrine in France known for its miraculous cures, telling them that he shares in their physical suffering and assuring them the burden is part of God’s “wondrous plan.”
The reference to his own illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease, came at the start of a two-day visit to the shrine to the Virgin Mary in Lourdes.
“With you I share a time of life marked by physical suffering, yet not for that reason any less fruitful in God’s wondrous plan,” the pope, 84, said in remarks read for him by a French cardinal. He was hoisted onto a kneeler to pray at the grotto, but after less than a minute he slipped, and aides lifted him back into his chair.
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