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	Lourdes Fears Priestly Scandal Will Make Profits Dry up By Jason Burke Guardian July 13, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/13/catholicism.france It is called the 'Zambelli Affair' and for the town of Lourdes, one of the world's most famous sites of pilgrimage, it could not have come at a worse time. Last week it was disclosed that Fr Raymond Zambelli, the priest in charge of the sanctuaries of Lourdes, was being investigated by financial police after a computer highlighted suspicious deposits in his personal account, amounting to ?360,000. Rumours of money-laundering were soon rife and, since then, the town has waited anxiously for the next dramatic twist. Zambelli, at a hastily called press conference, denied all wrongdoing and explained that the cash was a donation from an ageing worshipper. But though he has been backed by the Bishop of Tarbes, Jacques Perrier, the damage has been done. 'What every one fears is that the image of Lourdes will be tarnished,' Francis Dehaine, who manages the Lourdes sanctuary and its ?23m annual budget, said. 'Nobody ever thought something like this could happen. And it's the image of the shrine that suffers.' Lourdes is in the spotlight like never before. It is the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous, a poor, illiterate local girl, in a cave beside the Gave de Pau river and a total of eight million pilgrims are expected at the shrine this year, a third more than usual: in September, Benedict XVI is coming. According to a leaked letter, prosecutors have even suggested soft-pedalling the investigation until after the pope's visit. The Zambelli Affair has laid bare the long-standing resentment that seethes among the 15,000 inhabitants of Lourdes, where the residential and administrative 'upper town' has a sometimes tense relationship with the highly commercialised 'lower town', with its souvenir shops selling religious bric-a-brac. In the upper town, the investigation into Zambelli's finances has unleashed a strong sense of Schadenfreude. Every visitor at the shrine spends around €100 - manna from which those who are neither hoteliers nor souvenir shop owners are excluded. 'Serves them right,' said one waiter in the upper town. 'About time they got their comeuppance.' For those selling Lourdes water for €3(?2.50) a litre, the rosaries, the statuettes and the flashing plastic models of Bernadette , the fear is that the scandal will cost hard cash. 'It's like the Tour de France. One rider done for doping and the public think they are all on drugs,' said Anton Dupont, a taxi driver. Church authorities have acted recently to restrain the souvenir sellers' commercial excesses. Bottles of wine with the Virgin Mary on the label and place mats picturing the shrine's famous cave were banned, though healing mints made with holy water from the Lourdes spring are still on the shelves. Nor is the Church itself immune to the fallout. For the priests, the fear is for the big donors. More than a quarter of the sanctuary's revenue comes from gifts. 'The pilgrims themselves will come whatever,' said Dehaine. 'But the donors might be affected.' Local prosecutors are now weighing up whether to act against Zambelli, who has not been suspended. 'Without the shrine, most of us would be out of business, so we have to get on,' said Philippe Bianco, head of the local Chamber of Commerce. There was also little sign that the thousands flowing up the long esplanade leading to the basilica, dropping a donation of a couple of euros in a box for a candle or queuing for the grotto were worried by the state of the Zambelli bank account. Liam McGovern, 37, a former boxer from Ireland, had come to Lourdes with his mother to fulfil a promise made after he recovered from stomach cancer after visiting the shrine last year. 'There is something here that is real,' he said. 'A lot of people talk about this being a racket, but that doesn't change my faith. When your back is against the wall, like mine was, you have to talk to the man up above. And sometimes he answers.'
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