Archbishop Christian Lépine welcomed producer Roberto Ciurleo during his Quebec tour of the musical “Bernadette of Lourdes.”

By Brigitte Bédard

The producer wanted to meet the Archbishop of Montreal to offer him gifts: Lourdes water and a CD of the show that was seen by an audience of more than 70,000 people last summer in Lourdes, and which will resume on April 9, 2020.

“What can I do for you?” asked Archbishop Lépine. “Well, I would like to tell you how this musical was born and how it has moved many hearts, and to express my wish to bring it to Quebec in 2021!”

“At first, nobody wanted to hear about this show,” says Roberto. People were quite reluctant. It took me nine years. I believe it was Bernadette who pushed me forward, sending me signs to go on when I was tired of fighting! It threw me.

One day that Quebec’s well-known director Serge Denoncourt was in Paris, Roberto offered him to work on the story of St. Bernadette Soubirous. Denoncourt laughed wholeheartedly: “What? No way! I’m not even a believer!”

Roberto invited him to Lourdes. While being there, Denoncourt spent days going through the archives’ minutes. He was troubled by what he read on this poor, illiterate 13-year-old girl constantly interrogated by the clerk, commissioner and prosecutor, who yet stood up to them refusing to deny what she had seen: Aquero. Denoncourt agreed to create the show and decided to write it in the form of a real police investigation.

Amused, Archbishop Lépine added: “It’s good that he’s not necessarily a believer, but a man concerned with facts. People think that having faith means ignoring facts, but faith is grounded in facts, in realities that touch lives.”

Roberto then started recalling all the signs received since the beginning of this “call”—each more spectacular than the other—which, he admits, are now compiled in a collection: “On the plane to Quebec, I was hoping for a sign of encouragement, because I knew that here, as in France, people would be wary. To relax, I decided to watch a movie entitled Where’d You Go, Bernadette starring Kate Blanchet. In the movie … you’ll never believe this, Archbishop…

Roberto gets up and hands his cellphone to Archbishop Lépine. In the clip from the movie, the actress opens up a medallion and we see a picture of… Bernadette Soubirous!

“This is incredible!” exclaimed Mgr Lépine, laughing at this eloquent sign. "Do you know who you remind me of?" Jonas! God was pursuing him to do his mission. He does that with you too!

One would think that Roberto Ciurleo wants to sell his show, but he was immediately reassured by a conquered archbishop: “Roberto, this is not a sale! That’s a given!”

To be continued.