Deacon Vicente Gonzalez had been battling cancer off and on for over 30 years when his friend and fellow parishioner Melody Paulsen told him about the possibility of a healing trip to Lourdes, France.
He knew about the famous Marian shrine, where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858, and said it was on his “bucket list” to visit there. But he was surprised when Paulsen told him that the Order of Malta, to which she belongs, sponsors annual pilgrimages to Lourdes for those dealing with serious illness.
“I said, ‘that’s amazing,’ ” recalls Dcn. Gonzalez who was ordained in 2022 and is assigned to St. Kateri Tekakwitha parish in Beaumont-Banning. “I had been recovering from several kinds of cancer and I was a little bit disabled.”
A few months later he and his wife, Minvilu, who served as his caregiver for the trip, were on their way to the south of France. The weeklong pilgrimage brought Deacon Gonzalez closer to Christ through the presence of the Blessed Mother, he says.
“Mary comes to us just to show us her Son,” Deacon Gonzalez explained. “It’s like she’s right there, being our tour guide.
“The real miracle that I experienced occurred inside. I left a part of me in Lourdes.”
As a lifelong Catholic, Yolanda Madrid was also aware of Lourdes, saying “if you’re faithful you know about it. It’s a special place.” But when she was diagnosed and began treatment for breast cancer in 2022, she says it never crossed her mind that she could make pilgrimage for healing there. Again, a chance conversation with Paulsen changed that reality. As the only invested member of the Order of Malta in the diocese, Paulsen has a big job to help select those “Malades” (a French term for one who is ill) who will be sponsored for the pilgrimage to Lourdes, which takes place the first week of May each year.
Madrid, administrative assistant in the Diocesan Department of Life, Dignity and Justice, made her pilgrimage in 2023. This past May Dcn. Gonzalez and Socorro Ortiz, a parishioner of Our Lady of the Valley in Hemet, were two from the diocese to travel to Lourdes.
Ortiz sought the pilgrimage to help her heal from cancer and other health conditions including myositis and bleeding in her stomach.
“I am so amazed at how they are at the service of the sick and the needy,” Ortiz said of the Order of Malta. “It did not cost me one cent to go. Even though I am still sick, the fact that I went is a miracle. It was a very beautiful experience.”
Paulsen says she has had the blessing of experiencing the Lourdes pilgrimage as a dame in the Order of Malta, focusing on the total care and healing process for Malades, but also as a Malade, herself. During her own battle with cancer, Paulsen traveled to Lourdes herself more than 20 years ago. It was during that same period of her life that she joined the Order of Malta, a 900-year-old apostolic organization that has two charisms: defense of the Catholic faith, and service to the sick and the poor.
The Order doesn’t just provide financial sponsorship of the Lourdes pilgrimages, its members who attend literally provide round-the-clock attention and care to the Malades for the duration of the trip. This is done to the extent that Malades are not allowed to walk anywhere at the various Lourdes sites during the daytime programs, rather they are pushed and pulled on a voiture, a three-wheeled buggy.
“To have someone constantly tending to you is difficult,” acknowledged Madrid. “Sometimes you feel you’re not worthy to be there, that there’s someone out there who is sicker than you.”
Still, Madrid was struck by the level of attentiveness the knights and dames provide. “They have thought of every detail that a Malade might go through, and they have it covered.”
Water from a natural flowing spring in Lourdes is said to have healing powers, attracting tens of thousands of people to the shrine each year. Partaking of the water is part of the pilgrimage experience for the Malades, although the ritual has been amended since the COVID-19 pandemic. Where Malades had been completely submerged in the spring waters before, now the “water gesture” involves the washing of the face and hands, only.
The pilgrimage also features daily Mass, Rosary, evening candlelight processions, group talks among the Malades and their caregivers, and visits to specific church sites like St. Bernadette Chapel, Rosary Basilica and famous grotto where the waters flow.
“I hugged the rock from which the healing waters flow,” recalled Ortiz of her visit to the grotto. “I felt a great desire to cry. It was the tears that I felt, which was the Holy Spirit who touches us.”
Although there are many documented cases of literal healing of illnesses at Lourdes, the diocesan pilgrims say their journey in healing was more spiritual than physical.
Madrid’s cancer continues to be in remission, while Dcn. Gonzalez and Ortiz have faced challenges with their cancer since their return.
“I already believed that God heals us,” says Dcn. Gonzalez. “The real miracle happens when we change our lives and come back to Christ.”
Madrid offers a similar outlook.
“My hope was to be healed in the way that God thought I should be healed,” she said. “I let God take over with it.”
The Order of Malta’s Western Association typically receives 125-150 applications each year for sponsorship, granting about 50. Those interested in applying for the 2025 Pilgrimage are encouraged to contact Paulsen at www.orderofmaltawestern.us or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
“It’s really a joy to watch the Malades go through this,” she says. “To see the changes that happen in a week, it’s amazing. It’s life changing.”