Scottish Catholic Observer

The horror of last week’s events in Nice is almost beyond words. A beautiful evening—families and friends happily mingling in one of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful cities—suddenly, irreversibly destroyed. Watching the news since, it’s been hard not to weep. Each night brings a fresh story of sorrow, a new family whose lives have been ripped apart, who have lost someone they love in the most awful circumstances.

Yet, we will forget our tears, our horror. Already the news races to the next crescendo, the next tragedy. The victims of Nice will not forget. Their lives will be scarred forever by the horror they saw, the loved one’s they lost. Perhaps that is why we forget so quickly; their burdens are too great to share.

We don’t know for sure, may never know for sure, what motivated Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel to crash his truck along the Promenade des Anglais. Perhaps he was yet another fool radicalised by the zealots of the Islamic State, or perhaps he was acting under his own unknowable psychosis. Regardless, those who need our support and our prayers now are those who suffered by his hand. In times of such horror the world can seem overwhelming, yet we can—we must—still pray.

Indeed, Pope Francis’ urge for prayer this week has never been more urgent. After all she has suffered in the past few years, France needs our prayers. As the Pope said last Sunday: “May God, the good father, receive all the victims in his peace, support the wounded and comfort the families; may he dispel every plan of terror and death so that no man dares to spill his brother’s blood ever again.” That also means as we pray for the victims, we pray for the perpetrators. Praying for Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel and his ilk can seem perverse, especially when we consider how much his victims have suffered. Yet it is only by changing the hearts of the weakest and most heinous that we build a better world here on earth.

Pilgrimages to Lourdes are as integral a part of the Scottish Catholic summer as rain. But just because they are familiar we should not take them for granted. Amanda Connelly’s piece in this week’s SCO is a wonderful testament to the tremendous joy people find in Lourdes every year.

Every summer hundreds of young Scots go to Lourdes and help the elderly and infirm visit a place of profound faith, in a wonderful celebration of their Faith. Ms Connelly’s piece tells how that can lead to a moment of spiritual awakening in a way that is extremely compelling. We should give thanks this summer for the Blessing of Lourdes, and hope it can continue to help so many, both to heal and to find their Faith.