An Important Message from
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality
North American Volunteers

To all of our members, donors, benefactors, pilgrims, and volunteers:

Dear Friends and Lourdes Family,

It has come to our attention that another organization (or organizations), which we believe operates out of another country, has been soliciting funds and using websites that sound very much like our ministry, or using a website that takes you to a home page where they identify themselves or otherwise refer to themselves as “Lourdes Volunteers.”

This organization(s) may have caused confusion with our ministry; this is the reason for our statement below.

Our ministry is “Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers,” a Catholic Public Association of the Christian Faithful in the Diocese of Syracuse, as well as a US and French Non-Profit. Our headquarters is in Syracuse, New York, with  operations in New York State and Lourdes, France.

We are also often referred to as “North American Lourdes Volunteers” or simply “Lourdes Volunteers.” Our official website is www.lourdesvolunteers.org

We (Lourdes Volunteers) always welcome and appreciate any donations that we receive to help sustain our ministry. However, unlike what other organizations(s) may be doing . . .

• Lourdes Volunteers will NEVER require money or take money out of bank accounts for a payment – or charge a fee – by cash, check, credit card or otherwise – to take your prayer petitions to the Holy Grotto in Lourdes.
• Lourdes Volunteers will NEVER require money or take money out of bank accounts for a payment – or charge a fee – by cash, check, credit card or otherwise – to provide you with water from the miraculous spring in Lourdes (*Lourdes water).
  Lourdes Volunteers will NEVER charge a fee to come to your parish, school, hospital, etc. to present a Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience® (LVPE).
• We do not sell, market, or promote the sale of any so-called “sacred jewelry” or other trinkets, such as medals or keychains, and we do not “sell” Lourdes water.

The only items we offer for sale are the best-selling book by our Foundress, Marlene F. Watkins, “Everyday Miracles of Lourdes,” with all proceeds gifted directly to our ministry, and Andrea’s Wish Greeting Cards.

Every request to receive Lourdes Water or to deliver prayer petitions to the Lourdes Grotto in France is received freely and without charge by us.

Finally, we have most recently learned of what could only be called a “hard sell” advertisement on Facebook, put out by an organization identifying themselves as the “Association of Lourdes Volunteers,” and purportedly narrated by a “priest,” which juxtaposes the canonizations of St. Carlos Acutis and St. Bernadette, and urges you to make your prayer requests via the Facebook page and to “Act Quickly, because the Spots for Sending Prayers are Already Running Out.” The organization behind this Facebook activity is definitely not our organization, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers.

And so, dear friends, please remember that we will gladly take your prayer petitions to the Grotto in Lourdes whenever we visit the holy Sanctuary, and will be happy to provide you with Lourdes water, free of charge, upon request.

If you have any questions, or are not sure if you are communicating with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers, please feel free to call our office at 315-476-0026.

And again, our official website is www.lourdesvolunteers.org

Thank you!

*Donations can be made to contribute to the cost of shipping from Lourdes-France to the US to be bottled and mailed out in the USA. This is not a required fee or charge but is greatly appreciated as a donation to continue the ministry of sharing Lourdes Water across America-the-Beautiful.