An invitation has been made to Catholics throughout France to light a candle on the day of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December. The proposal is contained in a letter signed by the president of the French Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, and by Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes, reviving an initiative of the city of Lyon, which is lit up by “thousands of candles lit in windows” on the evening of 8 December, the day on which the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. “Why light a candle on that night in particular? Because reply the two bishops the Immaculate Conception is a light on the road of man”. It is the sign of a woman without trace of sin: only as such could Mary be Mother of God, and “full of grace”. “This is the Catholic faith write the two bishops it is neither a dream, nor a myth. It is the sign of God. It is a light shining in our darkness”. The two bishops also recall that on 15 August this year, the Church of France welcomed the Pope to Lourdes and “with him and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and several million television viewers, we celebrated the Assumption of the Virgin Mary” and the 150th anniversary of the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pius IX. In preparation for 8 December, apart from reviving Lyon’s initiative of the lighted candles (it’s called “Feast of Lights”), the Episcopal Conference has also produced a dossier explaining the history and content of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. A chapter of the dossier is dedicated to the apparitions of Mary to Bernadette at Lourdes, four years after Pius IX’s promulgation of the dogma. It was on 25 March 1858, in the grotto of Massabielle, that Mary replied to Bernadette’s question as follows: “I am truly the Immaculate Conception”.
