Twenty-four years ago, Father Wayne Watts, pastor of St. John Berchmans Parish, 2517 W. Logan Blvd., started taking young people to Lourdes, France, to volunteer to help the sick, who are called “malades.”

Ten years ago, during the first-ever official Archdiocese of Chicago pilgrimage led by Cardinal Francis George, the archdiocese established a formal twinning relationship with the Diocese of Belley-Ars, France, to help its malades every year. 

The young people transport the malades to their scheduled Masses, services, processions and visits to the grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette and more. 

During the 2008 trip, Watts was also made an honorary chaplain at the Lourdes shrine, an honor that recognizes a priest’s lifelong service to the shrine. With the distinction, he was given a pectoral cross, and he has precedence when celebrating public Masses at the shrine.  
Lourdes is the town where Mary appeared 18 times to the 14-year-old St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. 

The site quickly became known as a place for miracles, and 80,000 sick and disabled people from many countries visit Lourdes each year, according to the website of the sanctuary. During one apparition, Mary revealed a natural spring and urged Bernadette to drink and wash from it. People come from all over to do the same each year. 

Dioceses the world over arrange annual pilgrimages where they bring their sick, and volunteers, called hospitaliers, look after their needs. 
The relationship between Chicago youth and the French diocese is unique, Watts said. 

“Lourdes was started by a young person,” he said. “This relationship with the Diocese of Belley-Ars and the Archdiocese of Chicago was started by young people and it has grown into something very special.”

Bishop Pascal Roland of the Diocese of Belley-Ars agreed. 

“It’s a very good sign of catholicity,” said Bishop Roland during his diocese’s pilgrimage this year July 24-29. “‘Catholic’ means ‘universal.’ It is a sign of the universality of the church, and it is a great help for our pilgrimage.”

Volunteering with the sick at Lourdes helps the young people see a bit of heaven, Bishop Roland said. 

“I’ve always said that Lourdes is a little glimpse of heaven because here people don’t live as they live in the world,” Bishop Roland said. “In the world, they live their life seeking to be the strongest. Here the poor people are at the center and everybody is looking to the poor or the disabled. The people who are feeble are right at the center of our preoccupations. That is the right thing to do. That’s why Lourdes is very important.”

Volunteering with the malades also helps the youth appreciate the sanctity of all life.

“A grace of Lourdes is that we have a mixture of all sorts of people,” Bishop Roland said. “That’s very important for young people to meet other sorts of people, especially people who are old or not able-bodied. Then they discover they can be friends if they don’t have to worry that the person is sick or anything else.”  

Prior to the relationship with Belley-Ars, Watts and the youth volunteered all over Lourdes, doing things like helping the malades at the train station and in the baths where people are submerged in the spring water. Looking for a more established arrangement, Watts reached out to Arnaut Penet, then the  choir director for the shrine. 

Watts met Penet volunteering in the shrine’s choir. The two came up with the idea of the Chicago teens volunteering directly with a diocese. The first time Watts’ group volunteered with Belley-Ars was in 2006, Penet said. 

“We found Belley-Ars because Belley-Ars was coming to Lourdes every year around the same time Father Watts’ group was,” he said. “The first year, 2006, they worked and the Belley-Ars diocese asked them to come back the next year.”

The relationship was formalized between Cardinal George and the bishop of Belley-Ars in 2008. A group from Belley-Ars will travel to Chicago Sept. 24-Oct. 3 for a hands-on experience of how Catholic and local organizations care for the sick and disabled. 

Having young people from Chicago help during the week makes a difference, because there are never enough volunteers, said Claire Chaventon, a young adult from the Diocese of Belley-Ars who has volunteered on several pilgrimages.  

Chaventon is one of thousands of volunteers who give up their own vacation time and pay their own fare to Lourdes to serve the malades. Many are associated with formal pilgrimages, while others volunteer on their own.  

The malades look forward to seeing the youth from Chicago. 

“We have a lot of old people and sick people and they are happy to see the kids. It’s fresh,” Chaventon said. “The malades really like the time when [the Chicago youth] are with us.”

Working with the malades is a rewarding experience, Chaventon said. 

“We are their hands and their legs and they are our soul,” she said. “When you don’t do it each year, you miss it and want to come back.”
A pilgrim from Chicago agreed. 

“I loved working with the malades,” said Claire Russell, a freshman at the University of Notre Dame. “I think that’s where you see God the most. Jesus wanted us to help the sick, and he wanted us to see him in the malades. In helping them, we’re helping Jesus.”