Members of the Columbus region of the Order of Malta, 35 malades and their companions traveled to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio, on Sunday, Feb. 11 for a Mass with anointing of the sick celebrated by Bishop Earl Fernandes.

The Order of Malta sponsored the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation, which is located 1 ½ hours north of Columbus just outside the diocese, as part of its outreach to help individuals in need of medical and spiritual healing. The order staffs a Center for Care Clinic in the parish hall at Columbus Holy Rosary-St. John Church. 

Also in attendance were diocesan seminarians studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary who had come to Carey for a weekend retreat with Bishop Fernandes and Father Chris Geiger, the vice rector and director of formation at the Cincinnati seminary.  

Seminarians lead a procession into the sanctuary at the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation.  CT photo by Ken Snow

The Mass and anointing took place on the second Sunday of February, which the Catholic Church designates each year as the World Day for the Sick. This year, the date fell on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, who appeared in 1858 to a humble peasant girl, St. Bernadette Soubrious, in Lourdes, France, and uncovered a spring where countless miraculous healings have been reported.

Lourdes is now a pilgrimage spot where malades, a French word referring to the sick, travel from all over the world to bathe in the healing waters in search of a physical or spiritual cure.

Members of the Order of Malta from the Columbus region lead a procession toward the altar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey for a Mass on a Sunday, Feb. 11, which was observed as World Day of the Sick throughout the world      CT photos by Ken Snow

The Carey shrine is also a place where many spiritual and physical cures attributed to Our Lady of Consolation have been reported for more than a century. Testimonials of those healings can be found throughout the upper and lower churches at the basilica.

In Bishop Fernandes’ homily, he referenced the numerous trips from Toledo he made to the shrine in his youth with his family.

“Here in this basilica, I think my whole Catholic imagination was formed,” he said. “The Conventual Franciscan friars, the brothers and the priests, they prayed with faith and devotion, prayed very often for healing.

“In this basilica, down below, as a small child I was always amazed at the crutches that were left behind by people who would receive healing here. Mementos left behind by people who were converted here in this basilica. This basilica is a place of great faith and devotion and healing.”

Bishop Earl Fernandes recites the opening prayer at a Mass on World Day of the Sick at the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation. CT photo by Ken Snow

The bishop recalled that the last time he brought his parents to Mass together was at the shrine. He also said he came there to pray when his father, Sydney, died in 2019 and his mother, Thelma, passed away in 2022.

“Before my mother’s death, I was happy to announce to her that the Pope was going to make me a bishop the next day,” Bishop Fernandes shared with the congregation. “And then after leaving her, I came here again to receive consolation.

“Our Lord and Our Lady never cease to console and strengthen and heal us, and so it’s a great privilege for me to be with you today on this World Day of the Sick.”

Bishop Fernandes explained that the gospel readings from the previous Sunday and at this Mass involved healing.

“Recall that Jesus, leaving the synagogue, went into the home of Simon’s mother-in-law, and he touched her and she was immediately healed,” he said. “The fever left her. And, in her response of gratitude, she waited on Him. And all of the sick and suffering began to come to Jesus. …

“And in today’s gospel, he heals a leper. A sign, as told by the prophet Isaiah, was that lepers would be cleansed, the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the mute would speak, and the lame would leap up like stags.”

Lepers were considered “unclean” and not allowed to come near anyone while suffering an agonizing death alone.

“The Holy Father, in his message for this year’s World Day of the Sick, presented the theme: ‘It is not good that man should be alone,’” Bishop Fernandes said. “So many of the sick and suffering — especially the elderly — live in isolation in nursing homes and hospitals. No one comes to see them. No one wants to see their suffering. They often feel that they are burdens.

“Yet God has made us for communion with Him and for one another.”

Communion is distributed during the Mass on the World Day of the Sick at the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation. CT photo by Ken Snow

In addition to anointing, the bishop pointed out that the Church provides the sacrament of penance for spiritual healing. 

“Sin separates us from God. It separates us from our neighbor, whom we have marked by our sins,” Bishop Fernandes said. “And it separates us from the Church, the community of faith. … The Lord has the power in the hands of priests to forgive our sins and reconcile us with God, the Church and our neighbor.”

The bishop recounted a story from a visit he made while in seminary to see his oldest brother, Karl, a pulmonary care physician who at the time was treating a patient suffering from emphysema.

“While I was there, the wife of the man who was dying of emphysema called, asking my brother if there was anything he could do,” the bishop recalled. “And my brother’s voiced cracked and he said, ‘No, ma’am, I’ve tried everything I know how to do. I think it’s best if you just make your husband comfortable and you and your daughter thank God for the moments you’ve shared together.’

“And then my brother hung up the phone and he looked at me and said, ‘Maybe someday you will be a priest and you can offer them something more, something that I cannot do.’

“Jesus, the priest, offers healing. He is the divine physician. Mary is the consoler of the afflicted. She does not forget her children. Therefore, in times of sickness and suffering, in times of despair, let’s not lose the courage, for we have hope. For Jesus will not deny his mother anything, and if we ask her for healing, she will intercede for us so that we may receive the healing that God wishes us to receive.”

Though prayers for the sick might not always result in recovery, the bishop said it’s important to remember that “it’s not that God abandons us, but God wants to sanctify us. He is close. ‘If you wish, you can make me clean, you can heal me.’ And, as Jesus says in our Gospel, ‘I do will it.’

“But there is another truth: God wills that all should be saved, and that none should perish. And, therefore, He has given us the sacraments of His Church so that we might find the path of salvation which comes to us through Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.”