Pope leads prayer, urges help for Philippines after typhoon

November 11, 2013 - Pope Francis on Sunday led a prayer for the victims of the killer typhoon Haiyan that made landfall on Friday in the Philippines, leaving in its wake at least 10,000 people dead. "I wish to express my closeness to the people of the Philippines and of that region, who have been hit by a tremendous typhoon,” the Pope told thousands of pilgrims after his weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer and blessing from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square in Rome. One of the most powerful storms ever recorded swept away villages and devastated the city of Tacloban, displacing half a million people in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, the largest Christian community in Asia. “Unfortunately,” the Pope noted, “there are many victims and the damage is enormous.” “Let us pray for a moment, in silence … for these our brothers and sisters, and try to bring them also our concrete help,” the Holy Father said, urging for a moment of silence, which was followed by a ‘Hail Mary’ prayer. Meanwhile, Vatican Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, sent a separate message conveying the Holy Father’s "heartfelt solidarity" to Philippine President Benigno Aquino. Archbishop Parolin said the Pope “is especially mindful of those who mourn the loss of their loved ones and of those who have lost their homes.” “In praying for all the people of the Philippines, the Holy Father likewise offers encouragement to the civil authorities and emergency personnel as they assist the victims of this storm. He invokes divine blessings of strength and consolation for the Nation,” the Vatican official wrote. Earlier on Saturday a tweet by the leader of the 1.2-billion-member Catholic Church asking Twitter users to join him in prayer for the victims of typhoon Haiyan was re-tweeted almost 30,000 times.
Before the “Angelus”, Pope Francis shared a reflection on Sunday’s Gospel about Jesus dealing with the Sadducees, who ridiculed the resurrection with an example taken from earthly life. "Eternal life," the Pope said, "is another life in another dimension where, among other things, there will be no marriage which is related to our existence in this world. Jesus taught that the resurrected will be like angels, living in a different state, one that we now cannot even imagine and experience. But Jesus found proof of the resurrection in the episode of Moses and the burning bush, in which God revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God's name is connected to the names of the men and women to whom he is bound, and this bond is stronger than death. This is why Jesus said, 'and He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." Jesus is the Life and the Resurrection, because through his crucified love he conquered death, giving all eternal life. The life God prepares for us is not just an embellishment of the current one: it goes beyond our imagination because God continually amazes us with his love and his mercy." "This life does not serve as a reference to eternity;" the Pope argued. On the contrary, "it is eternity that enlightens and gives hope to the earthly life of each one of us.” Humanly speaking, we are led to say that a man's path goes from life to death. Jesus overturns this view and states that our pilgrimage goes from death to life: full life! Thus, death is behind us, and not in front of us.