Terms of Use
These Terms of Use are governed by the French Consumer Code (Art. L. 111-1 et seq.), the French Civil Code (Art. 1101 et seq.), the LCEN (French Law n° 2004-575 of 21 June 2004, Art. 6) and the GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). French law applies regardless of the visitor's location.
1. Purpose
These Terms of Use (hereinafter "ToU") define the rules of access to and use of the Lourdes-Massabielle.org portal (hereinafter "the Portal"), published by a self-employed individual operating as a sole trader (micro-entrepreneur).
Accessing the Portal and using its services (viewing editorial content, prayer wall, contact form, newsletter, affiliate links) constitutes full and unreserved acceptance of these ToU.
Specific conditions for paid directory listings are governed by a separate document: the Terms of Sale — Directory (/en/terms-of-sale-directory/).
2. Description of services
The Portal offers the following services, all free of charge for visitors unless otherwise stated:
Editorial content: articles and information pages (hub-and-spoke architecture) on the pilgrimage to Lourdes, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the Grotto of Massabielle, the Sanctuary, the Sacred Heart parish church, and practical and spiritual guides. Content is available in 11 languages (fr, en, es, it, de, pt, pl, hi, ta, sw, ms).
Prayer wall: a service enabling visitors to submit a prayer intention published temporarily on one of the 11 language prayer walls on the Portal. This service is free of charge and subject to the specific rules detailed in Article 5.
Business directory: a directory of Catholic and commercial establishments in Lourdes and the surrounding area. Free listings are pre-populated by the publisher. Paid listings (Essential, Premium, Sponsored tiers) are governed by the Terms of Sale — Directory.
Donations: the Portal offers the opportunity to support its operation through voluntary contributions via Stripe (one-off or monthly donation). Donations are governed by Article 6 of these ToU.
Newsletter: a periodic newsletter sent by email via Brevo, on a voluntary opt-in basis.
Contact form: a form enabling visitors to send a question or suggestion to the publisher.
3. Access to the Portal
Access to the Portal is free and open. No account creation is required to view editorial content.
Submitting a prayer intention requires a valid email address and verification via a magic link (an authentication link sent by email).
The publisher reserves the right to temporarily suspend or interrupt access to the Portal for maintenance, updates or force majeure, without prior notice or compensation.
4. User obligations
Users undertake to use the Portal in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and in accordance with these ToU. In particular, they undertake not to publish content that is unlawful, defamatory, insulting, hateful, discriminatory, pornographic, threatening or contrary to public order and morality.
They undertake not to attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Portal's IT systems, disrupt its operation, or collect other users' personal data.
Any automated use of the Portal (scraping, systematic data extraction) is prohibited, except for search engine indexing robots authorised in the robots.txt file.
5. Specific rules for the prayer wall
5.1 Access and identification
Submitting a prayer intention is open to anyone with a valid email address. Identification is carried out via a magic link sent to the email address provided. Only one submission is allowed at a time per person (one simultaneously published intention). Maximum 2 submissions per person every 15 days.
5.2 Content of intentions
Prayer intentions must be written in the language of the chosen wall and must respect the dignity of persons and the Catholic faith. Users may not publish content that is commercial or advertising in nature, political, partisan or activist in nature, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory or insulting, sexually explicit or inappropriate, containing third parties' personal data (names, addresses, phone numbers), or contrary to public order.
5.3 Moderation
Each intention is subject to a moderation process before publication. Moderation is carried out by an automated system using artificial intelligence (Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic), supplemented by human moderation for borderline cases. The moderation criteria are set out in the Prayer Wall Moderation Charter (/charte-moderation-mur-priere/).
The publisher reserves the right to refuse, remove or modify any intention that does not comply with these ToU or the Moderation Charter, without prior notice and without justification beyond the stated reason.
5.4 Publication period and deletion
Published intentions are displayed for 3 days, after which they move to "expired" status. They are permanently deleted 30 days after submission. Users may request early deletion of their intention via the page /prier/mes-donnees (accessible via magic link) or by writing to contact@lourdes-massabielle.org.
5.5 Sensitive data and consent
Submitting a prayer intention involves processing data that may reveal religious beliefs or health information (special category data within the meaning of GDPR Article 9). Explicit consent is obtained via a dedicated, unchecked checkbox before each submission. Details of the processing are set out in the Privacy policy.
5.6 "Support this prayer" button
Visitors may support a published intention via a dedicated button. This support is anonymous (only a hash of the IP address is recorded to prevent duplicates). No registration is required.
5.7 Reporting
Any visitor may report an intention they consider contrary to these ToU or the Moderation Charter. Reports are handled within 48 working hours. The publisher is not required to communicate the outcome of a report beyond an acknowledgement of receipt.
6. Donations
6.1 Nature of donations
Donations made via the Portal are voluntary contributions to support the Portal's operation. They are processed by Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd (Dublin, Ireland). Suggested amounts: €5, €15, €30 or a free amount (one-off donation); €5, €15, €30 per month (recurring monthly donation).
6.2 No tax receipt
The publisher is a self-employed individual taxed on non-commercial profits (BNC — bénéfices non commerciaux) and is not recognised as a public-interest organisation. No official tax receipt (CERFA form) can be issued. Donations are treated as taxable income in the BNC category for the publisher.
6.3 Right of withdrawal
In accordance with Article L. 221-28 of the French Consumer Code, voluntary donations are not subject to the right of withdrawal applicable to distance purchase contracts. However, the publisher undertakes to examine any refund request submitted within 14 days of the donation, on a case-by-case basis, by writing to contact@lourdes-massabielle.org.
6.4 Monthly subscriptions
Recurring donations (monthly subscriptions) may be cancelled at any time by the donor via the Stripe customer portal (link provided in the confirmation email) or by writing to the publisher. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current monthly period.
7. Newsletter
Newsletter subscription is voluntary and based on active consent (unchecked checkbox). Users may unsubscribe at any time via the unsubscribe link in each email or by writing to contact@lourdes-massabielle.org. Data processing is detailed in the Privacy policy.
8. Affiliate links
The Portal contains affiliate links to third-party services (Booking via CJ, Viator, GetYourGuide). These links are identified by a transparent notice on each relevant link, in compliance with commercial transparency obligations (Art. L. 121-1 of the French Consumer Code, unfair commercial practices).
The publisher receives a commission on bookings made via these links (4% Booking, 8% Viator/GetYourGuide). This commission does not result in any additional cost to the user. The publisher does not control the terms of sale, prices or quality of services provided by affiliate partners.
9. Intellectual property
All editorial content on the Portal (texts, photographs, illustrations, layout, visual component source code) is protected by copyright under Articles L. 111-1 et seq. of the French Intellectual Property Code. Any unauthorised reproduction or representation constitutes an infringement subject to civil and criminal penalties.
Quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the Code of Canon Law and pontifical documents are reproduced in accordance with canonical citation rules.
The Portal's source code uses open-source components (Astro, Tailwind CSS, Lucide Icons) under their respective licences (MIT, ISC).
10. Limitation of liability
The Portal is an information service with a catechetical and tourism vocation. The publisher endeavours to provide accurate and up-to-date information, but cannot guarantee the completeness, currency or accuracy of all content.
The publisher accepts no liability for:
- content published by a third party on the prayer wall, subject to removal within the timeframes set by the LCEN following a report;
- errors, omissions or inaccuracies in editorial content;
- temporary unavailability of the Portal (maintenance, technical incident, force majeure);
- damage resulting from the use of links to third-party websites or affiliate links;
- data loss resulting from force majeure.
11. Personal data
The processing of personal data is governed by the Portal's Privacy policy, the Cookie policy and the GDPR. Users have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection detailed in the Privacy policy.
12. Changes to these ToU
The publisher reserves the right to amend these ToU at any time. The ToU in force at the date of use of the Portal apply. The date of last update appears at the top of this document. In the event of a substantial change, notice will be given on the Portal.
13. Applicable law and disputes
These ToU are governed by French law. In the event of a dispute, and after an attempt at amicable resolution (contact: contact@lourdes-massabielle.org), the competent courts are those of the publisher's domicile, unless mandatory legal provisions provide otherwise (notably consumer jurisdiction rules, Art. R. 631-3 of the French Consumer Code).
For consumers resident in the European Union: online dispute resolution platform of the European Commission: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/.
Legal references
| Source | Reference |
|---|---|
| French Consumer Code | Art. L. 111-1 et seq., L. 121-1, L. 221-28, R. 631-3 |
| French Civil Code | Art. 1101 et seq. (contract law) |
| French Intellectual Property Code | Art. L. 111-1 et seq. (copyright), L. 335-2 (infringement) |
| LCEN | French Law n° 2004-575 of 21 June 2004, Art. 6 |
| GDPR | Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Art. 9, 13–14, 22 |
| ODR Regulation | Regulation (EU) n° 524/2013 (online dispute resolution) |