"The Charge of Monseigneur the Bishop of Tarbes, giving judgment
on the Appearance which has taken place at the Grotto of Lourdes.
"The event of which we are speaking to you has been for four years
the object of our anxious study. We have followed it in its different
phases and been advised by a commission composed of holy, learned
and experienced priests who have questioned the child, studied the
facts, examined and weighed everything. We have also sought the
opinion of scientists and we are finally convinced that the Appearance
is supernatural and divine, and that consequently, She whom Bernadette
has seen is the Most Blessed Virgin Herself. Our conviction is based
, not merely upon the testimony of Bernadette herself, but more
especially upon the events which have taken place and which can
only be explained by divine intervention.
"The testimony of the young girl is in every way as satisfactory
as possible. To begin with, her sincerity cannot be doubted. Who
that has questioned her can fail to admire the simplicity, the candour,
the modesty of this child? Whilst everyone is talking about the
wonders which have been revealed to her, she alone keeps silence.
She only speaks when she is questioned and then she recounts everything
without affectation and with a touching simplicity, and she replies
to the numerous questions addressed to her without hesitation, giving
answers clear and precise, very much to the point and bearing the
stamp of intense conviction. She has been tested most severely but
no menaces have ever shaken her; she has responded to the most generous
offers by a noble disinterestedness. She never contradicts herself;
in all the different examinations which she has undergone, her story
never varies; she never adds to it or takes away from it. Bernadettes
sincerity cannot then be disputed. we may add that it never has
been disputed; even her opponents, when she has had opponents, have
paid her that homage.
"But if Bernadette has not deliberately deceived us has she not
been deceived herself? May she not have thought that she heard and
saw something which she did not hear and see? Has she not been the
victim of an hallucination? How is it possible to believe such a
thing? Her wise responses show that the child possesses a clear
mind, a calm imagination, a common-sense above her age. The religious
sentiment has never shown itself in her under the form of excitement;
no-one has ever discovered in this young girl intellectual disorder,
mental vagaries, eccentricity of character or any hysterical affection
which might predispose her to creations of the imagination. She
has seen the Appearance, not merely once but eighteen times; she
saw it first of all suddenly, when nothing could have led her to
expect the vision, and afterwards during the fortnight when she
expected to see it every day, for two days she saw nothing, although
she was in the same place and in exactly the same circumstances.
And then again, observe what happened during the Appearances. A
thorough transformation took place in Bernadette; her face wore
a new expression, her eyes lighted up, she saw things which she
had never seen, she heard a language which she had never heard,
a language whose meaning she did not always understand but which
never left her memory. All these circumstances together make it
impossible to believe in the theory of an hallucination; the young
girl has, then, really seen and heard a being who calls Herself
the Immaculate Conception and as this phenomenon cannot be explained
by natural laws, we are bound to believe that the Appearance was
supernatural. "The testimony of Bernadette, important in itself,
gathers yet fresh force from the marvelous facts which have taken
place ever since the beginning of the Appearances. These marvelous
facts are indeed the complement of the Appearances. If the tree
is to be judged by its fruits, we may certainly say that the Appearances
of which the young girl tells us is supernatural and divine, for
the results it has produced are supernatural and divine...
"How can we fail to be struck by the dispensations of providence?
At the end of the year 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of
the Immaculate Conception. The winds carried to the ends of the
earth the Pontiffs words... and now about three years later the
Blessed Virgin, appearing to a child, says to her 'I am the Immaculate
Conception, I wish a chapel to be erected here in My honour'. Does
it not seem that She Herself wished to consecrate with Her approval
in the face of all the world, the infallible decree of Saint Peters
successor?...
"For these reasons, after having conferred with our venerable brethren
the dignitaries, canons and chapter of our Cathedral Church, the
Holy Name of God being invoked, taking as our guide the rules wisely
laid down by Benedict XIV in his treatise on the Beatification and
Canonisation of Saints, in order to distinguish true Appearances
from false (Book III, ch.51); in view of the favourable report which
has been presented to us by the commission established to inquire
into the Appearance at the Grotto of Lourdes and the facts relating
to it; in view of the written testimony of the doctors whom we have
consulted concerning the numerous cures obtained by the use of the
water from the Grotto; considering in the first place that the fact
of the Appearance, whether in relation to the young girl who has
told us about it or in relation to the extraordinary results it
has produced, can only be explained by the intervention of a supernatural
cause; "Considering in the second place that this cause can only
be divine, inasmuch as the effects produced are on the one hand
visible signs of grace, such as the conversion of sinners, on the
other hand results outside the ordinary laws of nature, such as
miraculous cures, and can therefore only proceed from the Author
of Grace and the Lord of Nature;
"Considering lastly that our conviction is strengthened by the enormous
crowds of the faithful who come spontaneously to the Grotto, who
have not ceased to come ever since the first Appearances and whose
purpose is to ask for blessings or to give thanks for those already
received ...
"After having sought the light of the Holy Spirit and the assistance
of the Blessed Virgin, we have declared and do declare that which
follows -
"We judge that Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, did really appear
to Bernadette Soubirous on the 11th February 1858 and on certain
subsequent days, eighteen times in all, in the Grotto of Massabieille,
near the town of Lourdes; that this Appearance bears every mark
of truth and that the belief of the faithful is well-grounded. We
humbly submit our judgment to that of the Sovereign Pontiff who
is charged with the government of the Universal Church...
"In order to carry out the wish of the Blessed Virgin, expressed
more than once at the time of the Appearances, we propose to build
a sanctuary upon the ground adjoining the Grotto, which has become
the property of the Bishop of Tarbes... We need therefore, in order
to carry out our intention, the assistance of the clergy and laity
of our diocese, of the clergy and laity both of France and of foreign
countries. We appeal to their generosity and especially to all devout
persons of every country to whom the cult of the Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin Mary is dear...
"This our charge is to be read and published in all churches and
chapels.
Given at Tarbes on the 18th January 1862,
Festival of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome.
"Signed, Bertrand Severe Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes."
