The Foreign Legion visits Lourdes Shrine

With 1000 recruits per year from 146 nationalities, the French Foreign Legion is a model of integration. Upon entering the Foreign Legion, the volunteer quickly learns that he did not join an ordinary institution but found a new homeland. This is the meaning of its motto: Legio patria nostra (the Legion is our homeland). The men come mostly from foreign countries, and many have a painful past behind them. A lot of these men come to the Legion looking for a second chance.

This year the young recruits received their white caps (kepis blancs) in Lourdes. 2019, being the "Year of Bernadette," the choice of the place was not an accident. Father André Cabes, Rector of Lourdes Shrine, reminded his listeners at a lecture he delivered on December 8, 2018, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, that “the Church is not an abstraction to us; she is a family, called to gather all men by integrating their differences.” 

Adapted from Lourdes-France