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The Italian press announced Friday that the appointment of the Auxiliary Bishop of Lille, Antoine Herouard, was considered the equivalent of placing the sacred spring at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains under surveillance.
Lourdes is one of the most revered sites of the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, because the city would be the place where the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant woman in a cave.
"Pope Francis, who is very interested in this case, wishes to accentuate the spiritual primacy over the temptation to overestimate the administrative and financial aspect," Vatican News official website said.
The pope wants the centers of Marian devotion to be "always more a place of prayer and Christian witness corresponding to the needs of the People of God".
A former Renault director, Guillaume de Vuilpan, was appointed head of Lourdes in 2017 and introduced new products to the site.
The sanctuary has regained profits in 2018 after 10 years in the red, accumulating losses of 10 million euros.
Last year, 1.2 million pilgrims visited the site, half of them on organized tours.
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