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	Exclusive Police Investigating Finances of Lourdes Priest Father Zambelli By Damien Fletcher Mirror (United Kingdom) July 5, 2008 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/07/05/lourdes-inc-89520-20632474/ The water at Lourdes is said to heal the sick-but it is the mysterious flow of cash there which has begun to ring alarm bells. French police this week asked a senior priest to explain the miraculous appearance in his bank account of ?350,000 - money that was allegedly meant for the sick and dying. Father Raymond Zambelli, rector of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, denies any underhand dealings. But it has raised questions over the billions of pounds being made in the holy pilgrimage town in the Pyrenees, where eight million faithful are expected to flock this year. The town has even been dubbed Lourdes Inc - where religion mixes with moneymaking like nowhere else on Earth. Visitors come to experience the special calm of the Massabielle grotto where, in 1858, the Virgin Mary first appeared to 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous. And they believe sampling the holy water from a row of taps beneath the basilica will have healing effects, as the church has recognised 67 miraculous cures were experienced in those who had either drunk it, bathed in it or applied it to their bodies. Sophie Loze, a Lourdes spokeswoman, insists Father Zambelli has done no wrong. "These were donations which he was given perfectly legally," she says. "He has nothing to hide and nothing to worry about. A couple with no children who wanted to help a priest gave Father Zambelli a house in Normandy 30 years ago, which he sold in 1996. "The other part of the money was given to him by a lady who asked him to say mass for her husband who had died." She explains priests rely on extra income from donations to supplement their salary of less than ?10,000. The Catholic Church does pay him money, but not much. Most of his income came from the people who ask him to say mass. He has not spent much so it's accumulated interest, and he's been perfectly transparent about this." But whatever the outcome of the police investigation - triggered by an alert from the French finance ministry's Tracfin money-laundering detection system - it has certainly done nothing to enhance the image of Lourdes. This rural town became revered across the world when, by order of Napoleon III, it was opened as a public grotto in October 1858. Word spread that the Virgin Mary had appeared to Bernadette 18 times - and thousands visited. At first, illiterate young Bernadette had great difficulty persuading the church that she had seen Mary, but in 1864 the statue of Notre Dame de Lourdes was installed in the Massabielle Grotto. Bernadette was canonised a saint in 1933, half a century after her early death as a nun at the age of 35. Her body, when exhumed three times over three decades, was found to be perfectly preserved. Her story was told by Czechborn Jewish writer Franz Werfel who, in the safety of the US, fulfilled a vow he made in the refuge of Lourdes early in the Second World War. Werfel's best-selling novel, The Song Of Bernadette, was adapted into a Hollywood movie of the same title, winning four Oscars in 1943. Open 24 hours a day, the grotto has walls worn smooth from millions of hands. It also has 17 bath cubicles in which 400,000 pilgrims, seeking cures, immerse themselves each year in the cold water. The town, home to 15,000, is split into two - the spiritual and serene and the tacky tourist scene. The Catholic Church runs the sanctuary, an oasis of peace and serenity that brings comfort and calm to its steady stream of visitors. The miraculous stream itself has been piped and a series of taps allows believers to fill up their bottles with the healing holy water to drink. It's also channelled into baths where the sick can immerse themselves, hoping for salvation. No profit is made from believers who visit the shrine or the pristine gardens and buildings for religious worship. But over on the other side of town, local businesses have been flogging tasteless tourist tat to the faithful. This is the Disneyland of God, an ugly neon riot of gift shops that look more like Las Vegas than a sacred site of religious worship. The aptly named Rue La Grotte runs through the town, lined with shops stocked from floor to ceiling with some of the ugliest packaged piety in the world. Virgin Mary jerry cans, snow globes and holograms jostle for space on shelves. Life-sized statues of saints start from ?100. There are even used teabag holders bearing the image of Bernadette, holy corkscrews, flick knives with a Lourdes motif and restaurants with names like the Angelus Snack Bar. The town consumes more candles than any other on earth - 700 tonnes a year, or two tonnes a day. And all this business is drummed up against a background of chiming bells, voices booming through loudspeakers and the chirps of plastic cuckoo clocks. It seems little is off limits. The only thing they are not allowed to sell is holy water - unless you count the Holy Water Flavoured Pastilles which you're apparently meant to suck on for spiritual sustenance. The money made is phenomenal. Lourdes, which has the most hotel beds in France outside Paris, is the most visited religious site in the world after the Vatican, bigger than the hajj's two million pilgrims to Mecca and with more tourists than Jerusalem. In light of the police investigation, there is doubt doubt about whether Father Zambelli will be welcoming the Pope to Lourdes in September as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations. The case is so sensitive that Jean-Francois Lorans, the prosecutor general in the nearby town of Pau, wrote to French justice minister Rachida Dati asking for the inquiry to be postponed until after the visit. In the leaked note, he says: "This affair is particularly sensitive because Lourdes is preparing to welcome Pope Benedict XVI on September 13, 2008. "The arrest and questioning of Father Zambelli should not take place until after the Pope's visit." Father Martin Moran, the town's English language co-ordinator, believes nothing - even the kitsch religious trash - could spoil the spiritualism of the town. "I think it's really harmless," he says. "People have to make a living and many people who visit Lourdes often want to take home something to remember their trip by, or a present for someone back home. "The vast majority of pilgrims are not interested in that side of things and do not come here to buy gifts. "They come here for spiritual reasons, and while they are here, yes, they will need somewhere to stay and they may go shopping." Well, no one said shopping was a sin... Religious facts & figures 400,000 invalids immerse themselves in the waters of Lourdes each year hoping for a cure 4 Number of Oscars won by the 1943 film The Song Of Bernadette, with Jennifer Jones (right) 8 illion pilgrims are expected to flock to Lourdes in its 150th year 700 tonnes of candles are consumed here each year ..more than any other town
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