Pope Leo XIV at Lourdes: Why Bernadette's Story Still Matters
Pope Leo XIV traveled to France last week, and we were particularly excited about his visit to Lourdes — the small town in the Pyrenees made famous by the protagonist of our film, Bernadette. His four-day trip, running September 25-28, 2026, took him to Paris, Lourdes, and Metz, marking the first formal papal visit to France since Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. The motto for this apostolic journey was, "That the world may have life."
Pope Leo XIV's Visits the Grotto
The trip began in Paris, where Leo visited a center supporting immigrants and celebrated an open-air Mass at Place de la Concorde before a crowd of more than 800,000. He then traveled south to Lourdes, where the day closed in a very different register. At the Grotto of Massabielle, he prayed that France receive the gift of fraternal harmony, then did what pilgrims there have done for over 160 years: touched the rock, lit a candle, drank the spring water, and spent several minutes in private prayer.
On Sunday, roughly 150,000 pilgrims filled the Prairie of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes for Mass. Leo also prayed privately with the Discalced Carmelite nuns whose monastery faces the grotto, and met privately with survivors of abuse — a gesture the Vatican described as a message of healing and vulnerability.
The Pope's Homily and Saint Bernadette's Message
What Pope Leo preached at Lourdes was not incidental to the place. He built his homily around the same message Our Lady gave to Bernadette: a call to conversion that is both tender and urgent. He returned to the word Mary repeated three times at the grotto: "Penance.” He described it not as punishment but as an act of love, carried out in solidarity with others and in reparation for a world in conflict.
He also spoke directly to the sick and suffering gathered there, saying their crutches, wheelchairs, and hidden tears are not obstacles at Lourdes but the very place where they are fully welcomed and can encounter God's love. Their suffering, he said, joins them to the redemptive work of Christ's own passion, giving them an irreplaceable place at the heart of the Church.
He also echoed something Mary told Bernadette directly, a promise Leo called especially forceful in a France, and a world, absorbed in material progress: "I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next." He closed by telling pilgrims they would not leave Lourdes as they arrived, but as missionaries of hope.
St. Bernadette Soubirous: A Missionary of Hope
It's tempting to think Lourdes is only about the apparitions themselves. But Bernadette's holiness isn’t found in what she saw; it’s revealed in how she lived after seeing Our Lady. She was doubted and pressed again and again to prove herself, and she refused to embellish. In her own words: "It is my duty to inform, not to convince." And in spite of scrutiny and doubt, she kept her eyes fixed on Jesus, seeking to grow in holiness, ultimately giving her life to him through her vocation as a religious sister with the Sisters of Charity of Nevers.
Her story — and the pope's homily built on it — doesn't promise a life free of pain. It reveals that there is meaning inside pain — that there is always hope in the midst of suffering.
A Story Worth Telling Well
Pope Leo XIV’s homily at the grotto highlights the truth that Bernadette’s life made known: no matter the hardship, we face, with Jesus, there is always hope. That is the heart of why we are making Bernadette and the Lady of Lourdes, a historical drama about the real woman behind the shrine.
We're grateful to be part of a moment when so many eyes are turned toward Lourdes, and we hope that by watching this film, you'll come to know Bernadette, and recognize the enduring hope her life represents.