As I write these words I do some from Toulouse, France on the way to Lourdes. You may not have heard of Toulouse but it is headquarters to Airbus, the second largest airplane manufacture. The other, of course, is Boeing, located in Seattle, Washington. But Toulouse is also an important location in Catholic history as well. Pope Fabian in the year 257 C.E. Sent Saint Sernin to the city as its first bishop. He was not warmly received! He was actually martyred and his body was dragged through the city by a bull. Today, Saint Sernin is buried in the country’s largest and most famous Romanesque Basilica, St. Sernin in the very center of the town. Also significant to Catholicism is the fact that St. Dominic founded the Dominican community in Toulouse in the year 1215. One of its most prominent members, St. Thomas Aquinas is prominently remembered in the Basilica as his skull and other remnants are placed under the main altar at the basilica. Toulouse was also the center of a major heresy in the church called the Albigensian movement which rejected the incarnation of Christ and the material world. Pope Innocent III had to launch a brutal army crusade against southern France to crush the movement.
I had the privilege to preach today in the Basilica and I spoke about our pilgrimage to Lourdes and why each of us came. I welcome you to reach the homily by clicking here.
Keep us in your prayers as we are doing for you.
