08/02/2026: Lourdes, The Improbable Tale of Ted Lasso, Birds of War

0:08Bill Whitaker:Do you believe in miracles? Well, 60 Minutes traveled to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France, where 72 medical miracles have been recognized by the Catholic Church over the past 164 years. And tonight, you'll hear a miracle story, and from the renowned doctors and researchers who investigated it.

0:35Knock-a-doodle-doo. Good morning, Coach Lasso. Well, that's a heaping spoonful of truth soup right there. What do you think the legacy of Ted Lasso is decades from now? Folks keep watching it. Hey, Higgins! It's a decent chance it'll pay for my kids' college, unless I blow it all. You don't think it's already done that? You don't think I've already blown it? Yep.

1:01Once in a while, we get to travel so far off the beaten track, there's hardly a track at all. For decades, this pristine forest in western Colombia was a no-go area because of armed conflict. But that allowed hundreds of species of birds to thrive. Oh, look at this. Some of which you can't find anywhere else on Earth. Oh, look at that. Oh, my God. Look at that huge thing. I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Nora O'Donnell.

1:34Bill Whitaker:I'm Bill Whitaker. Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.

1:47Bill Whitaker:After decades of devastating global conflicts and increasing political partisanship, you'd be forgiven for giving up on the idea of miracles. But tonight, we'll take you to a place that's known for them. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France is the site of 72 medical miracles recognized by the Catholic Church. The Marian Shrine is famous to the faithful, but less well-known is the Lord's Office of Medical Observations. We first told you in 2022 that's where world-renowned doctors and researchers conduct decade-long investigations into the countless claims of cures reported over the years.

2:29Bill Whitaker:They determine which cases can be medically explained and which cannot. It's those church officials might call a miracle. For the doctors, it's a lesson in the limits of medicine. For the devout, it's divine intervention.

2:49Bill Whitaker:The small French town of Lourdes, tucked in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains, draws four million pilgrims a year, more than travel to Mecca for the Hajj or to Jerusalem. And almost everyone you meet will tell you they have heard stories of miracles here. But we heard none more inspiring than that of Sister Bernadette Moriaud. I really tried everything I could, but this is something that cannot be healed. What was your prognosis? Full, total paralysis. The prognosis was really dark. Strolling with then 83-year-old Sister Moriot through the chapel grounds in Brèles, France, we found it hard to believe that for half her life she suffered from cauda equina, a disorder of the nerves and lower spine.

3:44Bill Whitaker:You wore this all the time? Her left foot, she said, was twisted and limp. To walk at all, she needed this back and leg brace, an implant to dull nerve pain, and massive doses of morphine. She told us she had exhausted all treatment options, so in 2008, her doctor convinced her to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Did you believe in miracles at the time? I always believed in miracles, but not for me. So why did you decide to go? Well, I didn't go there for a miracle. I just went there to pray with others. Lourdes is a place where the smallest people, or the sickest, or the poorest, they come first.

4:31Bill Whitaker:The sickest, the poorest, the diseased and debilitated, bearing wounds visible and hidden, come from all over the world, seeking to be healed by the shrine's natural spring waters and the power of prayer. Amen. And so I've asked for complete healing or a super long remission. This was Kim Halpin's first pilgrimage. She was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer in 2021 and came all the way from Kansas to cleanse herself in the waters of Lourdes. Are you expecting to be healed? Not necessarily. Ask for as much as I want, and maybe I will be blessed with part of it, which will be okay. Halpin was aided by her son Sean.

5:22Bill Whitaker:We couldn't help but notice there are as many volunteers as sick here. The Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers helped Jamie Jensen travel from Minnesota for his 18th visit. Even though the camera sees that I have a condition and a chair, when I'm here, I don't have a condition. Jensen's condition is cerebral palsy. All those trips to Lourdes haven't given him the physical miracle he wanted, but maybe, he says, he got the miracle he needed. I was very bitter, very angry with myself. Did coming to Lourdes change your heart? Very much. Do you consider that a miracle? I do because there's a peace within myself.

6:22Bill Whitaker:Stories of inner peace and acceptance don't meet the bar for the Office of Medical Observations. And with just 72 medical miracles recognized over the past 164 years, You'd have better odds playing the lotto, yet thousands of faithful line up at the baths and at this grotto where the first miracle is said to have occurred. The sanctuary, with its three basilicas and 25 chapels, is laid out like a grand theater complex, its many stages offering dozens of pious performances throughout the day. The finale, a candle-lit procession every night.

7:13Bill Whitaker:There would be none of this were it not for Saint Bernadette. According to Catholic lore, in 1858, a mysterious woman appeared in this grotto to Bernadette Souberoux, a 14-year-old peasant girl. Jean-Marc Mika, the bishop of Lourdes, says the woman spoke with Soubarou several times over five months. And once, the 25th of March, day of the Annunciation, she said, I am the Immaculate Conception. When word got out the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin Mary had appeared in Lourdes, people flocked to this grotto and within days started making claims of miracle cures, the ability to walk, restored sight.

8:04Bill Whitaker:Worried about fueling mass hysteria, the church set up the Office of Medical Observations in 1883 to investigate the claims. Which brings us back to the other Bernadette in our story. In 2008, Sister Moriaux found herself in a wheelchair in a procession at Lourdes seeking the intervention of Saint Bernadette. And I really had that feeling that the Lord was walking with us. And I heard him giving me these words, I see your suffering and that of your sick brothers and sisters. Just give me everything. You heard the voice of Jesus. Yes, I heard this inner voice. I can't really tell you whose voice it was.

8:47It was like a spiritual experience.

8:50Bill Whitaker:She said she returned home rejuvenated spiritually, but physically she felt worse. After three days in excruciating pain, she told us she suddenly found the strength to walk to the chapel and pray. Then I felt some kind of heat coming into my body. I felt relaxed, but I didn't really know what that was meaning. And in my room, I heard this inner voice again telling me, take all your braces off. I didn't think twice, and I started taking my foot brace off. And my foot, that used to be crooked, was straight. And I could actually put it on the ground without feeling any pain. All of a sudden your foot was straight?

9:32Yes, like that. Like the way it is just now. And so I kept going.

9:37Bill Whitaker:She says she took off the braces and stopped the morphine all at once. Did this make sense to you? No, I knew it was impossible. She came to my door with her doctor, and she said, last year I came to Lourdes on pilgrimage, and three days after I got back home, I was cured. Dr. Alessandro DiFrancicis hears stories like that all the time. When we met him, he was the president and residing physician at the Lord's Office of Medical Observations. His job was to determine whether there is more to those stories by applying seven strict criteria established by the church. And we're looking for a diagnosis.

10:19And if that diagnosis is a diagnosis of a severe disease with a severe prognosis, and then we want to make sure that that person is a person that was cured in a way that one would say suddenly, in an instantaneous way, in a complete way, and in a way lasting in time. And my seventh criteria that has to match is there must be no possible explanation to that cure.

10:45Bill Whitaker:Sister Bernadette Moriot. Here on the end. He showed us the archives, which hold thousands of recorded claims of cures. This feels like it's almost 10 pounds. Dr. Di Franchichis, a practicing Catholic, told us what separates the more than 7 ,000 claims of cures from the 72 the Church calls miracles is an ungodly amount of medical documentation and patients like Sister Moriot willing to put their lives under a microscope. We sent her to different neurologists, we sent her to different rheumatologists because of the different specific case of her disease. We asked to repeat twice all sorts of imagery, electrophysiology.

11:29We did all that we were doing medicine to be absolutely sure of her diagnosis and it was. But he wanted to confirm something else. I was asked to meet with two psychiatrists in Paris. They wanted to know if I was lying, if I had already had any hallucinations, if I had levitated. I remember answering, no doctor, I never left the ground floor.

11:58Bill Whitaker:Satisfied, Dr. Di Franchisi sent Sister Moriot's case to a group of 33 doctors and professors called the International Medical Committee of Lords. Its job is to determine whether a cure is what they consider medically unexplained. We're not trying to reel something in or reel something out. We're just trying to be objective. You could call them the devil's advocates. Dr. Michael Moran, a surgical oncologist. Dr. Yasek Mostwin, a professor of urology at Johns Hopkins. And Dr. Kieran Moriarty, a renowned addiction specialist, scrutinized Sister Morio's case. Is there anything that could have caused her response?

12:45No treatment would be that effective that quickly.

12:50Bill Whitaker:Does religion enter into your medical conversation? We cannot separate ourselves as people who have been deeply immersed in the culture and the traditions of Lourdes and the church. But make no mistake, we're just as technical as a forensic pathologist when it comes to looking at the technical details of the case. After eight years of investigation, the committee determined that Sister Moriot's case was medically unexplained. So when you do a survey, the investigation of Sister Bernadette's or any of the other cures, this is done on a purely medical basis, something that could be peer-reviewed by other physicians outside of...

13:31Not could, that is. They are peer-reviewed. I can affirm with absolute certainty that the case of Sister Bernadette had been reviewed, read, expertized by at least 300 physicians. 300 physicians. And if tomorrow morning any of our viewers is a doctor, and one day he stops in southern France and comes to see me, When he wants to look into the file of Sister Bernadette, I'll be delighted to show him because we have, everything is open and collegial and no secrets.

14:07Bill Whitaker:The secret is the mystery of it all. And on that, the church gets the last word. In 2018, a decade after her cure, Sister Moriot's case was declared the 70th miracle of lords. Declaring a miracle is saying God did something. This is the miracle. And the doctors cannot go on that land, on that field. When I told people I was coming here, I got a lot of people who told me, oh, come on, there's got to be some explanation that we just don't know. What do you say to the skeptics? Come and see. Be open. Don't be narrow-minded. be open to believe that the real world is wider than the visible one.

15:00Bill Whitaker:It's been said about Lourdes, for those who believe no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation is possible.

15:26Ted Lasso is one of the most beloved comedy shows of the decade. It's a fish-out-of-water story about an American football coach from Kansas who moves to England to take charge of a professional soccer team, despite knowing nothing of the sport. When it debuted a few months into the pandemic, fans flocked, and critical acclaim followed. Over three seasons, it received 61 Emmy nominations. Not bad for a show that started out as a commercial. The improbable tale of Ted Lasso changed the game in Hollywood and the lives of its stars. So when production for the third season was about to begin, back in 2022, we went to London to meet as many members of the ensemble cast as we could, including Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso's mastermind and alter ego to find out how the show scored.

16:24Knock-a-doodle-doo. Good morning, Coach Lasso. Did you set out and say, I want a character that's all about positivity and kindness and can transform people, bring out the best in people? To play the character was intentional. To play someone that was kind-hearted, that didn't swear, be like Teflon towards people's negativity or sarcasm, 100 % intentional. Kindness and positivity can be transformative. Yeah, and so can the opposite. But I mean, if you had to choose one at that point of writing it and wanting to play it, I'd much rather try to view the world, you know, as Ted Lasso. That way is the Lasso way.

17:04Jason Sudeikis told us the comedy in Ted Lasso rolls onto the screen like a Trojan horse. Howdy, y 'all cowboys. Sometimes farcical. Morning, Ted. Hey, Higgins. Oh! Often profane. Just gonna wash your ass. It's f*** off. Carrying with it homespun wisdom and warmth. Well, that's a heaping spoonful of truth soup right there. The show defied not just the dark times of the pandemic, but sometimes logic itself. Do you believe in ghosts, Ted? I do. But more importantly, I think they need to believe in themselves. As coach of the fictional soccer team known as AFC Richmond, Sudeikis likes to say Ted Lasso is the best version of himself.

17:47One quality both character and actor share is curiosity. I saw this quote by Walt Whitman. It was painted on the wall there. It said, be curious, not judgmental. I like that. Walt Whitman never wrote or said be curious, not judgmental, yet it's become more than just a catchphrase. My mom's parish is South Side of Chicago. Christ the King, you know, had like a Bible study class. And what was the Bible study about? Probably like be curious, not judgmental. The gospel according to Ted Lasso, something like that. Maybe I think it might have been something like that. Football is football, no matter where you play it.

18:25The show's success is even more extraordinary when you consider its origins. More than 10 years ago, long before Ted Lasso became gospel, he began as an arrogant, incurious commercial. Hey, how you doing? This is Ted Lasso. And I'd like to talk to the queen, please. NBC Sports needed a buzzy ad campaign to promote soccer's English Premier League in the U.S., so they called Sudeikis, who was finishing up a 10-year run on Saturday Night Live. Skip like little girls. Go not to care the world. He said the job sounded like fun, especially when he was allowed to invite two old friends along for the ride.

19:03So before you guys created Ted Lasso, you were actually best friends. I don't know. Best friends? A lot of people in our life. I think we got along well. We're fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how would you describe your relationship? Best, I think best friends. I think probably. If I had to... Ted Lasso co-creators Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt have known each other and Jason Sudeikis for more than 20 years. I'm gonna be okay. After the commercials, the trio developed Ted Lasso into a more complete character, who shed his arrogant swagger for humble curiosity. In the show, Ted Lasso also deals with divorce.

19:42You're not quitting, Ted. And mental health challenges. You getting paid to just jot down your little notes and diagnose my tears and then what? All while bringing a feminine approach to a typically masculine job. Y 'all got to get together and woman up, hmm? Think you mean man up, mate? No, y 'all been manning up for a while now. Look where that's got you. If anybody claims that they thought this show or knew this show was going to work, they're fibbing a little bit. No one was sure. The three friends got a boost when veteran television producer Bill Lawrence joined the project. What was in Jason's pitch that convinced you?

20:20He knew from the start that this was a guy that was putting out an optimistic face. And that would be one note if he wasn't also aware that that was covering up somebody that needed to learn about self-care and being proactive in facing whatever demons they might have. It got moving once Bill was involved. But Bill said this is not a soccer show. Right. Yeah. Yeah, he basically pounded the table and shouted at a very early writer's impression that says, not a soccer show. This is a workplace ensemble comedy. But that's kind of been a guiding principle, you know. It takes place in the soccer world, but it's not, it's never about the soccer at all.

21:05Yeah, the thing that I was saying in the pitch meetings when Bill and I went out was like, this show's as much about soccer as Rocky is about boxing. What happened when you shopped around Ted Lasso here in Hollywood? What was the reaction? No, I died. What's the opposite of a bidding war? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll take it.

21:29Streaming service Apple TV Plus decided to take on Ted Lasso, which is produced by Warner Brothers. Do you think you had more freedom because it was Apple? We went into filming feeling like the underdogs that Richmond were. We weren't coming on the heels of a bidding war. We weren't coming on the heels of, like, here we go with this monster show. And I felt like it helped. The process, the tone, the feeling, the vibe, everything.

21:57The vibe behind the scenes seems to mirror the team seen on the show. We invited Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard. Brentford taking on Crystal Palace. Lasso's Lasso! And Tahib Jamo and Cola Bikini, who portrays soccer players on Ted Lasso, to a proper Saturday afternoon match. So I was kind of surprised in talking to the writers that one of the things that you guys deal with in the show are trying to dismantle is toxic masculinity. 100%. I think setting a show in a boys' locker room, in a football locker room, is the perfect place to try and tackle that. I think that comes from just a culture of, you know, it's very competitive.

22:38It's like boys being around other boys and everyone's pretending to be this version of what they think a man is or a young man is. You get different versions of people in it. You know, the person that you are behind closed doors is not the person that you are in real life. Before he took on Ted Lasso, in real life, Jason Sudeikis hailed from Kansas, just like the coach he now plays. There, he was a college theater star, but just as comfortable playing point guard on the basketball team. He says Richmond is partly based on his old team that also happened to be called the Greyhounds. Bill had one of these hanging in his office.

23:16He pointed out on the set... DeMott, named after Martin DeMott, an improv teacher from Second City. Ted Lasso's writers named members of the team after friends, family members, and former mentors. Saskia Moss is one of the owners of Boom Chicago, where Brennan and Joe and I all worked in Amsterdam. One, two, three, three! It's hard sometimes for one word to capture so many things, but for a lot of people, this is the iconic Ted Lasso. Believe. I know. Believe in yourself, believe in the people around you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Believe in the process. One of the show's breakout stars, Brett Goldstein, believed he could play Roy Kent.

23:55Check on your f***ing teammate! The gruff, washed-up tough guy with a heart of gold. I like being Roy Kent. I don't know if I can handle just being some loser has-been called Roy. Trouble was, Goldstein was hired to write, not act. Last time I saw Eyes That Cold, they were going head to head with Roy Scheider. While we were writing it about somewhere around episode five, I started to think, I think Roy Kent is living inside me. How did Brett Goldstein go from writer to star? Just flat out showbiz gumption, you know, and he just felt a connection to the character. and so he taped himself, sent it to Bill saying, hey, if this is good, you know, great.