Chaplain (Capt.) Peter Uhde poses for a photograph with Capt. Ivan Castro, who was severely wounded in a mortar attack in 2006 while serving in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. (Photo courtesy of Peter Uhde)

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Capt. Ivan Castro was severely wounded in a mortar attack while serving in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division in 2006.

The blast destroyed his right eye and damaged his left optic nerve, blinding him. He also suffered pulmonary embolism, an aneurism, a broken right cheekbone, a broken nose, an amputated finger, a compound leg fracture, a torn shoulder and collapsed lungs.

He said he felt "disgruntled" with God, whom he blamed for his blindness.

"Losing your sight is not an easy thing to overcome," he said. "I wasn’t a hell raiser. I tried to do my best in this world. ... I was upset with the Lord. Why should I receive this punishment?"

But while he was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for surgery, he attended Mass, and a priest told him about the opportunity to visit Lourdes, France, where a young shepherd girl, Bernadette Soubirous, reported seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1858. The waters at Lourdes have been renowned by Catholics for their miraculous healing properties, and 6 million people make a pilgrimage to the site each year in the hope of miracle cures.

Each year, there is a worldwide military pilgrimage to Lourdes. This year’s event, the 51st annual trip, will be held Thursday through Monday.

Castro and his wife, Evelyn Galvis — along with another wounded soldier and his wife — made the pilgrimage earlier this year, thanks to the Knights of Malta.

The Knights, a 1,000-year-old order that once cared for pilgrims and defended the Holy Land, routinely brings wounded U.S. soldiers to Lourdes to bathe in the waters.

Also known as the Knights Hospitaller, the order was founded in Jerusalem in 1080 to care for Christian pilgrims. It later became a religious and military organization that defended the Holy Land until the area was conquered by Islam in the 13th century. The order still operates hospitals for the sick and poor all over the world, including the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem — a free maternity hospital for people of any faith, said Jeff Ludwig, a modern day Knight of Malta. "We are the oldest existing order of Catholic chivalry in the world," he said.

In recent years, the Knights have funded trips for about a dozen wounded U.S. soldiers from Walter Reed to Lourdes.

The soldiers brought to Lourdes from Water Reed are all Catholics who have suffered combat wounds in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their injuries range from lost limbs to traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder and blindness, Ludwig said. "The impact (for soldiers visiting Lourdes) is that there is healing for everybody there, whether it is spiritual or emotional or physical," he said.

Castro was not miraculously healed at Lourdes, but he met other pilgrims there whose suffering put things in perspective, he said.

Over time he came to terms with his disability, he said. "It’s all up to your attitude and the people you surround yourself with and the support you have," Castro said. "If you are feeling sorry for yourself you are not going to get anywhere."

But Lourdes did help him.

"I went there with the attitude that I was going there as a good person for some spiritual reflection and healing. You look at the person to the left and right of you and see that your cross is not as heavy as theirs. I have come to realize that this (blindness) is the cross that he (God) has given me. "I don’t think he would have given me this cross if I wasn’t able to carry it," he said. "I’m blind for a reason and only the Lord knows the reason."

Despite his physical challenges, Castro is still on active duty, serving as an executive officer with the rear detachment of the 7th Special Operations Group. He provides Spanish language instruction and uses a talking computer to support soldiers deploying to Afghanistan and South and Central America.

"I’m going to continue to serve because my command has really supported me and they are giving me a job to do," he said.

Like Castro, other U.S. soldiers who have gone to Lourdes have not reported miraculous healing of combat wounds, although one veteran claims that he was cured of nearsightedness after taking the waters, Ludwig said.

PTSD is an issue wounded warriors must often confront, Ludwig said.

"For veterans, the visit has helped them reconcile their lives, regardless of what the circumstances are," he said. "Every warrior feels remorse about lost life on the battlefield. One can come to a holy place and have an opportunity to reflect on life and seek reconciliation, which is one of the promises to all Catholics — forgiveness."

Army Capt. Peter Uhde, 54, visited Lourdes after being medically evacuated to Walter Reed while serving with the 171st Cavalry Brigade in Iraq in 2005.

Uhde, a Catholic priest and an Army chaplain, was diagnosed with cancer at the hospital and was told he had six months to live. He embarked on an experimental treatment, over 18 months, to remove a tumor from his neck and reroute arteries from his chest into his brain.

While he was at Walter Reed, Uhde got a call from the Army Chaplain’s Office asking if he’d like to go to Lourdes with the Knights of Malta.

"At Lourdes, we went to the baths each day and went to church, and people laid hands on us and prayed for us," he recalled. Earlier this month, Uhde — a cancer survivor — was back at Lourdes as a motivational speaker.

Chaplain (Capt.) Peter Uhde poses for a photograph with Capt. Ivan Castro, who was severely wounded in a mortar attack in 2006 while serving in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. (Photo courtesy of Peter Uhde)

Capt. Ivan Castro, shown here with his wife, Evelyn Galvis. Earlier this year, the couple made a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, with the Knights of Malta. (Photo courtesy of Peter Uhde)