Dear AMIL members and dear Readers,
We are now in the middle of summer and you have Bulletin 361 in your hands.
In my long and fraternal friendship with my predecessor, Dr Roger Pilon (1990 - 1997), I was often stimulated by his suggestions and insights. A few months ago, in one of our telephone conversations, I had expressed to him a certain surprise at having noticed that Monsignor Claude Dagens, the Bishop of Angoulême, had recognised in his Decree of Mr Jean-Pierre Bély (Miraculous Cure N° 66), ‘the authentic character of his cure’ without mentioning or evoking the term “prodigy”, “miracle” or “sign”.
A few weeks later, Dr Pilon shared with me his text commenting on the Decree of Recognition of the unexplained cure of Mr Jean-Pierre Bély.
I publish this text preceded by the reproduction of a lecture I gave in January 2020 at the Catholic Institute of Paris during an Ecumenical Colloquium with the fascinating title ‘Does God still heal ?’.
Thus, with this Bulletin, members and readers will be able to reflect on the root of our belonging to the International Medical Association of Lourdes (A.M.I.L.), which is our relationship with Lourdes and its unexplained cures.
I think you will find the articles by our colleague Yves Mesplède, who tells us about his experience as a sick person and then as a convalescent, and that of our future colleague, Thomas Gaziano, who spent a few weeks of 2023 with us in Lourdes and here summarises his emotions and discoveries, equally interesting.
In the traditional News, we commend, as always, to your prayers the many intentions that have been brought to our attention.
From a Lourdes finally packed with pilgrims and sick pilgrims I greet you all very fondly.
Sandro de Franciscis ■
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