The 31-year-old Catholic’s virtual pilgrimage of Lourdes was viewed 53,000 times, from 162 countries, in its first year alone.
He told CNA that the Sanctuary of Lourdes received feedback from people who did a virtual tour and say they now are looking forward to visiting in person.
“Some people tell me if we create a virtual tour for heritage [sites], people will not come, but that’s not true,” La Rochefoucauld said. In his experience, a virtual pilgrimage can give people the desire to experience a place firsthand.
“Virtual will never replace physical visits, I think, especially when it’s about a church and a pilgrimage,” he said.
He tapped his finger on a tablet and laughed as he said, “because of course we don’t have God in [there]… It’s like watching a Mass on YouTube. It’s not the same as being physically in the church.”
La Rochefoucauld’s own pandemic pilgrimage to Lourdes — the two weeks in April 2020 when he painstakingly captured 360-degree images of the shrine’s empty streets and churches — was “very exciting.”
“I was, I think, very, very lucky,” he said, “because at that point, a lot of churches were closed. And maybe I was the only one who had the possibility to visit three churches and a crypt.”
He said that as a photographer, the experience of seeing the Sanctuary of Lourdes empty was “exceptional,” and it was also probably his first time visiting without the presence of the sick and disabled.
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“But it was for handicapped persons,” he added. “It was for handicapped persons I was there, but there was no rolling chair.”
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency’s senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.
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