The Church's Declaration on Lourdes


The testimony of the young girl presents all the guarantees we can desire. First of all, her sincerity cannot be called into question. Who, when he meets with her, can do aught but admire the simplicity, the candour, the modesty of this child? While all around her talk about the marvels revealed to her, she alone keeps silent; she speaks only when questioned and then she relates everything without affectation and with a touching simplicity; and to the numerous questions she is plied with, she answers, without hesitation, clearly, precisely, aptly, in words stamped with a strong conviction ... She is always in agreement with her own statements, she has always maintained what she has said without adding or suppressing any fact during the different interrogations to which she has been subjected ...

But if Bernadette has not wished to deceive, could she not have been the subject of self–deception? Has she not believed that she has seen and listened to what she has neither perceived nor heard? Has she not been the subject of hallucinations?–How could we believe such a thing of her? The wisdom of her replies testifies to the upright character of this child, her unruffled imagination, a good sense surpassing her age. Religious sentiments have never presented in her an over–excited disposition. We have never established in the nature of this young girl any intellectual disorder or impaired judgment, or singularity of character, nor morbid affection, which could predispose her to imaginary creations ...

We judge that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, really appeared to Bernadette on the 11th February, 1858 and on following days to the number of 18 days in all in the Grotto of Massabielle, near the town of Lourdes, that this apparition is endowed with all the characters of truth and that the faithful are justified in believing in it with certainty.

Mgr. Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes, January 18, 1862