A RI.A. I NT correspondent asked whether it was necessary to concentrate quite so much on Lourdes as a venue for the sick and afflicted. Could not some of our shrines (e.g. Walsingliarn) share something of the blessings Lourdes enjoys, both spiritual and temporal, My former parish priest thinks the practice of healing has been shamefully neglected in the Catholic Church. 'This answered a question by a member of the group re the faith healing services held in certain other denominations which do seem to give some help to the afflicted.
Finally, surely the Gospel reading on the mission of the 72 disciples (healing temporal as well as spiritual) underlines the importance of the points I have raised.
The majority of the 72 disciples were what we would call laymen and did not wait)) the privileged status of the apostles and therefore the revival of the healing cult would not need to involve our overburdened clergy with still more work though of course their guidance would be constantly sought.
By all means let the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes and pilgrimages to that shrine continue. By all means let us try to "upgrade" our own Shrines to our Lady to a higher degree.
But could not something be done in our own parishes with of course particular reference to todays Gospel? (Luke 10 1-12 17-20) J. M. GOODFELLOW Frith Kent.