Cardinals Paul Joseph Cordès, president of the Papal Council "Cor Unum", and Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the evangelisation of the peoples, will open in Lourdes the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin to Bernadette Soubirous. On December 7th, at the Church of Saint Bernadette, in the sanctuary on the Pyrenees, card. Cordès will say Mass, followed in the afternoon by the opening of two exhibitions, "Mary in Lourdes" and "Mary in Europe", and in the evening by the traditional procession ‘aux flambeaux’. The following day, the Day of the Immaculate Conception, in the basilica of Saint Pius X, Mass will be said by card. Dias followed by the Angelus prayer. In the afternoon, there will be a Eucharistic procession, during which the mosaics of the luminous mysteries made by father Marko Rupnik will be showed for the first time. The opening of the jubilee of Mary’s apparitions in Lourdes will also be celebrated by the second international meeting of the Hospitallers, "The Church on a mission with the volunteers" (6 to 8 December), and by the national pilgrimage of Unitalsi (Italian National Union for Transport of the Sick to Lourdes and International Sanctuaries), which will leave Rome on 5th December to be back in Italy 4 days later.
