France: Lourdes and Bethlehem become twin cities
The Marian city of Lourdes and the municipality of Bethlehem in Palestine signed a twinning agreement on March 2, 2016. This partnership bears, among other things, on training in professions relating to religious tourism and the commercialization of Palestinian arts and crafts to benefit local Christians.
In 2012 already, the “official rosary” of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes was made in olive wood by a family of Bethlehem. In total, nearly 25,000 rosaries per year were sold to benefit the Christians of the Holy Land, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The city of Lourdes is also twinned with Czestochowa in Poland and Ourem-Fatima in Portugal. Other pairings are planned with the sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, and that of Aparecida in Brazil.
(Sources: kipa-apic.ch –LPJ – Lourdes – DICI no. 333, 25/03/16)
