Dear Dames, Knights, Chaplains, and Candidates,
On behalf of the leadership of the Order of Malta, Western Association, it is my pleasure to kick off preparations for the 2027 Lourdes Pilgrimage. The dates for next year’s Pilgrimage are Tuesday, April 27th through Wednesday, May 5th.
2027 Lourdes Pilgrimage Flyer
2027 Lourdes Pilgrimage Leadership
Our 2027 Leadership Team is confident that we will be able once again to organize a highly successful Pilgrimage, one that is both safe and healthy. Our 2026 effort was one of our largest ever, and one that we believe worked for us both spiritually and organizationally.
Yet we can continue to improve certain aspects of our Pilgrimage effort, and we appreciate the suggestions that we have received. Each year we learn from, and enhance, the procedures, strategies and protocols that have worked in the past.
For those of you so inclined and able to offer the incremental support, we urge you to consider designating your 2026 Annual Appeal contribution to support our Lourdes Pilgrimage efforts.
But before turning to the details of our 2027 effort, we thought that you might appreciate viewing a recent 60 Minutes piece on Lourdes, an update of its earlier one. The new presentation is a good reminder of why we go to Lourdes, and why our annual Pilgrimage is so valuable for both our malades and our “Working Pilgrims.”
France's Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes: Where 72 medical miracles have been recognized by church officials
Travel
Notwithstanding today’s continuing inflationary pressures, we are proposing to maintain the base price of the 2027 Lourdes Pilgrimage at $3800 for the Air and Land Program, which includes charter air service for the nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Lourdes and back. That base price has not been altered for years and reflects both our cost control efforts and the Annual Appeal and other forms of support that our Members have provided. The price for the Land Only Program will also remain unchanged, at $2900.
Once again in 2027 we will have access to an Air Tahiti Nui Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art aircraft that offers the latest in amenities and safety features. Our ATN flight should offer our Pilgrims a healthy, safe and comfortable travel experience. There will also, as before, be upgrade opportunities from Economy Class to Business and Premium Classes.
2027 Lourdes Flight Upgrade Flyer
Registration Dates
Revisions in the Registration Process
Our 2026 reforms worked well, and we will maintain them in large measure. Specifically, we will keep open the General Registration process for a full business week, until the close of business on Friday, November 6, 2026. We wanted to eliminate the pressure of a “rush to the computer,” and we think that opening this registration window helps to achieve that aim.
Our most significant dilemma that arose in prior years might well be described as one of the proverbial “high-class problems.” Using rounded numbers and excluding malades and Caregivers, we have had up to 500 prospective Pilgrims seeking to register for around 300 available places. This enhanced demand is a result of the passing of the COVID complications, the increasing size of our general Membership and our Provisional classes, and strong interest on the part of our Auxiliary Membership and Volunteer group. And the demand for our 2027 Lourdes Pilgrimage may be further increased by our new Western Association policy of requiring Provisional Candidates to join our Lourdes Pilgrimage prior to their Investiture.
To be clear, we have already enlarged the size of our Pilgrimage from around 340 in 2015 to approximately 390 last year; as many of you know, we now occupy every room in Eliseo and have also booked rooms in the nearby Padoue for our use. We have looked carefully at the possibility of further expansion of the Pilgrimage group, and we really do think that we are pretty much at our venue, travel and accommodation capacity at around 400.
The prioritization process we have adopted the past few years – putting Dames and Knights, Provisionals, Chaplains and certain Medical Team members at the head of the queue – worked as intended. We will also work in 2027 to include as many of our Volunteer candidates as possible.
Revised Registration Procedures
- Prioritization. We will prioritize Members (including Auxiliary Members), Provisionals, Chaplains (though not necessarily other Volunteer clerics), Medical Team members selected by the Medical Director, and Leadership Team members. But we will no longer automatically include Spouses of those individuals as automatically included Pilgrims. We will try to include them, but they will be considered as part of the deliberative process described in Item 5 below.
- Family Members. We continue to debate what number of family members, including minors, should be included as Pilgrims under the current circumstances. We understand that having small children with us can have a positive and stimulating effect on the Pilgrimage group; there is also a feeling, though, that family groupings can take away the Malade focus that is central to our efforts. Accordingly, we will continue to follow the policies of our fellow U.S. Associations, discouraging the participation of more than one minor Volunteer per family (with Malade families excepted), and minors under age twelve generally heavily disfavored.
- Spouses. As noted above, Spouses who are not Dames or Knights will also be looked at, without prioritization, in our deliberations. We will of course try to include them to the extent consistent with our other aims. However, our Membership colleagues have asked us not to prioritize the non-Member spouses of our Provisionals Members as they focus on immersing themselves in the Pilgrimage experience.
- Other Restrictions and Issues. We of course want our Pilgrimage group to have an acceptable geographic balance; that has worked out reasonably well in recent years. But of late, we’ve had issues on occasion with our “Working Pilgrims” being unable to “push or pull” a 250-pound (or more) Malade up the hill by the St. Joseph’s Gate, for example. And, on a few occasions, we’ve had Teams that were left short-handed by its working members needing to see to other commitments – medical, choir, or other Malta leadership responsibilities. So we’re going to throw those matters into the deliberative hopper described below as well.
- Our Deliberative Decision-making. This is of course the hardest part. What we propose to do is to ask the senior leaders of the Pilgrimage – John, Mike Psomas and me – to review the overall group of registrants in early November, and, applying the prioritizations and considerations noted above and getting personal input as needed from Region Leaders, to compile a preliminary registration list and, if the numbers require it, a Wait List. We will apply the criteria outlined above, with special sympathy for our Members who have sought to get to Lourdes in the past, and been rejected. And just to be clear, (a) all final decisions will be made by the Pilgrimage Director, subject only to review by our President, and (b) no one will be deemed formally accepted as a Pilgrim until specifically notified of that decision by the Pilgrimage Office.If you wish to be considered as part of this initial deliberative process, you must submit your completed registration materials by the General Registration deadline date of November 6, 2026. And again to be entirely clear, we will not ask anyone for any payment until they have been formally confirmed as a Pilgrim.
- Summary. We’re sorry to add a bit more bureaucracy to our work and uncertainty to the registration process, but, given the levels of interest we’ve had and our wish to be fair to all of our Members, to the Order, and especially to our malades, we think that this is the right path to follow.
Registration Details
Individual registration for the Pilgrimage requires submission of a completed registration package. A complete registration package includes:
- Online registration form
- Full payment (once you have been confirmed as a Pilgrim)
- Recent personal photo
- Current VIRTUS (or acceptable equivalent) Certificate
- Current on your Yearly Contribution
Again, your participation in the Pilgrimage will be confirmed once you have been formally accepted pursuant to the process described above. At that time, we will send an invoice and payment address and link. We will ask that you take care of this promptly. Note that Members must be current with their required annual contributions to the Western Association, along with their current VIRTUS (or acceptable equivalent) certification, to register. If these items are not current, you will be placed on the Wait List.
In addition, there are two additional (small) changes on the payment front. Confirmed Pilgrims can pay their passage fees by either check or credit card. This year, however, if you choose to pay by credit card, we will increase the required payment amount by 3% (about what the banks charge us). And if you subsequently cancel your participation, any refund to you will be only the base amount (i.e., $3800 or $2900), and will not include this 3% incremental charge (which the banks do not refund to us). Cancellations will require written notice to us prior to February 1, 2027. Any cancellation after that date will not result in a refund, and the associated payments will be considered donations to the Pilgrimage.
Special Notes
Pilgrimage Cancellation and Refunds. Although we are planning for, once again, a safe and healthy Pilgrimage journey, our Medical Team will continue to monitor closely applicable government regulations, and we will comply with them. The Board of the Western Association has agreed that, in the unlikely event that the Pilgrimage must be cancelled in response to government health restrictions, previously-registered Pilgrims will receive a full refund, including the 3% fee referenced above, if paid.
One-Way Travel on the Charter. We from time to time receive requests from our Working Pilgrims to travel one-way with us on our Charter flights. Officially, we discourage such one-way trips; we like to have our Member Pilgrims on the plane, to help with our Malades. On occasion, though, we have granted exceptions to the “both ways” policy. We tend to look favorably on those who travel to Lourdes early (or stay late) for additional charitable work, and upon requests by clerics who need, for example, to travel on to Rome for work-related reasons. Particular extenuating family-related matters may also provide a basis for one-way travel. Usually, though, the wish to facilitate additional vacation travel in Europe is not considered a strong basis for an exception.And to be clear, it has always been our policy that, whether one travels one-way, or both ways, on the charters, the cost is the same – the full Air and Land cost. It’s too difficult, from both a logistical and an accounting perspective, to sell one-way tickets on our flights.
Passports, Visas and the new ETIAS System. We are also closely monitoring the passport and visa mandates for entry in 2027 into the EU. This may indeed be the year that the new EU “ETIAS” process is implemented. We should have plenty of time to comply with these requirements, but prompt action after acceptance may be needed.
Clergy Sponsoring Procedures
Most of you are aware of our policies with respect to the sponsorship of Members of the Clergy, but a few words of repetition may be in order. With respect, first, to our current Chaplains of the Order, each of them will be invited to join us, at the expense of the Pilgrimage. We invite you to reach out to Chaplains whom you know to encourage them to join us next year, but each of them will receive a registration link directly from the Office.
With respect to Provisional Chaplains and volunteer Members of the Clergy who might wish to join us, it’s a bit more complicated. We do not generally cover their Pilgrimage costs, but we have over the years strongly encouraged Knights and Dames to help underwrite these expenses. Please see the link below.
Finally, on the cancellation front, our current refund policy is that all Pilgrims seeking a refund – including sponsored Members of the Clergy – will need to provide written notice of their withdrawal by February 1, 2027 (as noted above). If the sponsored Member of the Clergy withdraws before that deadline, payments theretofore made will be refunded to the sponsoring Knights and Dames. If the cancellation occurs after that date, the payments will be considered a donation to the Pilgrimage.
Clergy Sponsoring Procedure
Malade Nominations
We encourage you to help us identify prospective Malade candidates. Once again this year Dame Gene Kates is, with our gratitude, leading the initial stages of our evaluation effort. If you would like to nominate an individual for consideration as a Malade for 2027, please complete the online nomination form below.
But while first-rate Malade candidates are the reason for the existence of the Pilgrimage, we encourage you to focus on candidates who are reasonably well-known to either you or another Member. Last year we had to reject over 50 candidates, and those communications can be extremely difficult for Gene and her team. While all candidates are given personal consideration, those who are well-known to the sponsor have a greater likelihood of being selected.
2027 Malade Nomination - Online
2027 Malade Nomination - PDF
If you have any questions, please contact me at either the e-mail address, or the mobile number, listed below. We look forward to another successful and spiritually meaningful Pilgrimage.
Confraternally,
Paul Tosetti
Director
Lourdes Pilgrimage 2027
Mobile: +1.213.364.1100
E-Mail: paul.tosetti@protonmail.com