The Little Chapel is a place of devotion not a tourist attraction

Firstly, its origins go back further than Brother Deodat. They go back to February 11 1858. An illiterate 14-year-old girl was beside the River Gave in the then small town of Lourdes in the foothills of the Pyrenees. She was gathering firewood for her impoverished family. She saw an apparition in a grotto. The vision appeared on many occasions during the next five months and spoke to Bernadette Soubinous in her native dialect. The vision slowly revealed herself as Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Lourdes has since become a place of pilgrimage attracting several millions of visitors every year. The town itself houses tacky gift shops and has its professional beggars. The area around the grotto, however, is an extensive sanctuary for prayer and does not possess any signs of commercialism. It is open free of charge day and night and silence is expected in some parts and good behaviour is expected in what is a place of pilgrimage. It is not a home for gawking tourists.

Secondly, it must be hurtful to Brother Deodat to see what was built as an act of devotion, a replica of the original basilica at Lourdes, be developed not as a place of devotion but as a tourist attraction with the possibility of an entrance fee.

Thirdly, the island must be grateful to the Little Chapel Foundation for resourcing and restoring the Little Chapel. The island cannot be grateful if it becomes no more than a place for whistle-stop tourists rather than a place to encounter the spiritual. Nowhere in recent correspondence have I seen any mention of the spiritual.

Fourthly, the terms of the sale of the land owned by the Christian Brother to the Little Chapel Foundation does not prohibit the surrounds, as opposed to the Little Chapel itself, from being used to promote commercial use or activities or ideas contrary to the teaching of traditional Christian belief and practice. I cannot see gifts to the Little Chapel Foundation as being gifts to charity any more than are gifts to, for example, Castle Cornet. Indeed those seeking to donate to charity could easily find more worthy causes either here in Guernsey or in other parts of the world.

Fifthly, in matters of access, what makes it so different from such places as Castle Cornet or Hauteville House, neither of which can be accessed by coach tours or have easy disabled access? Public funds should never be used to facilitate coach/car parking for access to the Little Chapel site.

Finally, it is a matter of amazement that the States of Guernsey have not placed the Little Chapel on the protected building (or monument) list yet have placed many modest private homes on such a list.

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