Lourdes doctors rethink miracles

AN INTERNATIONAL doctors’ panel appointed by the Catholic Church says it is getting out of the “miracle” business at Lourdes.

The panel will no longer judge whether pilgrims to the French shrine could have benefited from “miracle” healing — a huge shift from the centuries-old way of deciding what makes the cut as a divine cure.

“It seems ‘miracle’ may not be the right word to use any more,” Bishop Jacques Perrier of the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes said.