Pope’s private trip to mountains

(August 9, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI quietly slipped away without notice for a day on Friday for lunch and prayer in the mountains of central Italy’s Abruzzi region. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said that in a strictly private visit, the Holy Father went to pray in a mountaintop sanctuary known as the Madonna of the Needy. He then visited a community of nuns in the town of Carsoli, where he was the guest at lunch with retired Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, former president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Healthcare. Fr. Lombardi said he later visited a church in Rocca di Mezzo, where he prayed for the people hit by a 2006 earthquake that destroyed the city of L'Aquila. The earthquake claimed 308 lives and affected 120,000 people in and around L'Aquila. Tens of thousands are still living in hotels, barracks and makeshift apartments built by the government. Instead of vacationing in the Alps as in the past, Pope Benedict is spending this summer at the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo, where he plans to stay until the end of September.