(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI flew up to Italy’s northern region of Emilia Romagna
Tuesday to express his solidarity and pray with victims of a series of powerful earthquakes
that devastated the area last month. At least 12 thousand people across a large swathe
of north central Italy saw their homes destroyed or damaged and are living in tents
and makeshift camps. Thousands braved the soaring temperatures and scorching sun
to greet the Pope when he arrived in San Marino di Carpi outside Modena and hear
his words of comfort. Tracey McClure reports:
A visibly moved Pope Benedict
said he had been following their plight since the first quake struck May 20th and
had remained “close to them in prayer and concern.” But he said when he “heard their
plight had become even harder, he felt an increasing need to come in person to be
with them.”
In offering prayers for those families and communities who had
lost loved ones in the destruction, the Pope said he “wanted everyone in every town
to feel how the Pope’s heart is close to theirs to console them but above all to encourage
and support” them.
Pope Benedict recalled flying over the stricken region
on his way up to Milan in early June for the World Meeting of Families, saying he
had wanted to visit them then and his “thoughts turned frequently to them.” He said
he knew that “besides suffering the material consequences, your souls were also tried
by the continued tremors, even strong ones; and by the loss of several symbolic (historic)
buildings of your towns…amongst which many churches.”
On his arrival in Rovereto
di Novi, near Modena, Pope Benedict toured the “red zone,” the historic and hardest
hit part of town where parish priest Ivan Martini died in the collapse of his church
as he tried to rescue a statue of Our Lady.
Paying tribute to his memory, the
Pope commended the local clergy for demonstrating “generous love for God’s people”
and pointed to the comfort he found in reading Psalm 46 which recalls the trembling
earth. In that passage, the Pope said God is seen as “our refuge and our fortress”
especially in times of anguish and duress.
“On this rock, with this firm hope,”
the pope said, “we can build, we can rebuild.” And likening the tragedy to post war
Italy, the Pope reminded the quake victims that they are not alone and that their
country “was rebuilt certainly thanks also to the help received, but above all thanks
to the faith of so many people moved by the spirit of true solidarity.”