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Society for the transport of sick people to Lourdes
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Address
6, Triq Federiku, Valletta
Tel
2122 5303
The Society for the transport of sick people to Lourdes was founded by Can. G. Azzopardi and two of his friends, Mr. G. Galea and Mr. G. Debrincat, after they had been to Lourdes. Seeing that only Malta was not present at Lourdes with sick people, they decided to form a society to organize pilgrimages of sick people to Our Lady’s sanctuary. With the blessing of Mgr. Maurus Caruana, bishop of Malta, the society was formed in 1931 with Can. Azzopardi as president, Mr. Galea as secretary and Mr. Debrincat as treasurer.
In those days the pilgrimage was a risky business: the pilgrims left Malta by boat for Syracuse and then from Syracuse to Lourdes by train. In the early fifties through the efforts of Can. G. Briffa Brincati, the Maltese society made contacts with its Italian counterpart, the U.N.I.T.A.L.S.I., whose secretary general then was also the secretary of the Order of St. John. Through his interest the Order of St. John began providing air transport to Rome for the sick pilgrims, and then the pilgrims joined one of the U.N.I.T.A.L.S.I. pilgrimages to Lourdes, first that of the Rome-Lazio section, later that of the Sarda sud Section, and finally that of the Campana section. Till recent years, the pilgrimage left Malta by an Air Malta plane for Rome where it joined the U.N.I.T.A.L.S.I. pilgrimage of the Campana Section and had an audience with the Pope. Since 2004 the Pilgrims are flown on a direct flight to Lourdes.President
Dr Maria Meilak, M.D., D.S.S., F.S.;
Tel
21692474
Fax
21225303
Chaplain
Fr Mario Camilleri
Tel
2143 4123
Bursar
M’Anne Schembri, SRN,
Tel
2145 5294
Secretary
Mr Joseph Borg S.R.N., M.Sc. (H.Mgt.), Dip. Psych. Nurs. Dip. Lab. Stud., PGCHM (B’gham)
Tel
2169 1978
Doctor
Dr. Nicholas Vassallo, M.D.