Duchess of Kent to go to Lourdes

BY CECILIA BROMLEY-MARTIN THE ONLY CATHOLIC
member of the Royal Family is to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes next month.
The Duchess of Kent will travel in a private capacity with a Westminster diocesan pilgrimage to the shrine in southwest France, where she will care for the sick pilgrims.
A spokesperson for the tour operators with whom the duchess will travel said: "Each carer will share a double room with one of the sick, and they will all be involved in helping wherever they can such as providing medical skills, pushing wheelchairs and helping at the baths."
The duchess who converted to Catholicism early last year in a ceremony celebrated by Cardinal Hume at Westminster Cathedral is not new to care work, having served as a telephone counsellor for the Samaritans for nearly 20 years.
Three million people annually visit the shrine at Lourdes which dates back to 1858, when on numerous occasions Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette, an ailing 14-yearold shepherdess, and showed her the hidden source of a spring which produces now 27,000 gallons of water a week, and has been responsible for many cures.