Yet the little girl did not look like a liar, and I believe that she was fully convinced of the miraculous nature of her cure.

It is the facts themselves which lie.
"Lourdes, the Grotto, the cures, the miracles, are, indeed, the creation of that need of the Lie, that necessity for credulity, which is a characteristic of human nature.

At first, when little Bernadette came with her strange story of what she had witnessed, everybody was against her.

The Prefect of the Department, the Bishop, the clergy, objected to her story.

But Lourdes grew up in spite of all opposition, just as the Christian religion did, because suffering humanity in its despair must cling to something, must have some hope; and, on the other hand, because humanity thirsts after illusions.