Tuesday 8 May 2007 2150 BST on BBC Two Programme preview

Five hundred new saints have been created since the Church reduced the number of miracles required for sainthood from four to two in 1982.

But at the French pilgrimage site of Lourdes only 67 miracles have been recognised in the last 150 years.

So the authorities in Lourdes have decided to simplify the rules and create a sub-miracle category to boost the numbers.

Pilgrimages

This World follows two journeys. Susan Higgins and her father Ken are on their first pilgrimage to Lourdes. Ken is partially paralysed after a massive stroke. Susan almost died from two brain haemorrhages and lives in daily fear of another one.

They are just two of the six million pilgrims that go to Lourdes every year, and are hoping to become one of the first cases in the new sub-miracle category of cures.

Their priest, Father David, who is leading the trip, has other ideas. He is a miracle sceptic: "Jesus cured many people. They're all dead now," he said.

But he has other motives for encouraging the pilgrimage.

Canonisation ceremony

By contrast in Indiana, USA, Phil McCord has officially experienced a miracle.

Phil McCord's miracle was recognised by the Catholic Church

He was cured of blindness after praying to Mother Theodore Guerin, the nun who founded the convent where he works. Under the new rules this is enough to make her a saint.

So Phil and his wife travel to Rome for the canonisation ceremony to see his benefactor made into a Saint. 20,000 pilgrims gather outside St Peter's. Phil will meet the Pope.

Back in Indiana the elevation of Mother Theodore to Sainthood transforms the fortunes of the convent. Pilgrims are arriving in the hope of more miracles. Sales in the gift shop are up 600%.

This touching, funny and at times surprising film, follows these two journeys from Lancashire to Lourdes and Indiana to Rome.

It explores the joys and disappointments of the pilgrims and the surprising realism of a Catholic priest. It shows how miracles and saints are vital to the emotional and financial power of the Catholic Church.