Pope comforts earthquake victims
L’AQUILA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI embraced the survivors of Italy’s deadly earthquake Tuesday as he walked through their muddy tent camp and demanded “serious soul-searching” from those responsible for the shoddy construction blamed for many of the 296 deaths.
In his first visit to central Italy since the April 6 earthquake, Benedict toured the three symbols of destruction that have come to epitomize the region’s grief: the leveled hamlet of Onna, where 40 of the 300 residents died; the crumbled basilica of L’Aquila; and the ruins of a university dormitory whose collapse has spurred criminal probes into negligence.
Showing a relaxed, pastoral side rarely seen in the Vatican’s typically controlled appearances, Benedict prayed with the earthquake’s homeless in the rain, telling them that the church was suffering along with them and that they should keep up hope and rebuild, better than before.
But at the same time, he told them that “As a civil community, some serious soul-searching is necessary, so that at any moment responsibilities never fail.
“If this happens, L’Aquila — though wounded — will be able to fly again,” Benedict said, referring to the city’s name, eagle.
The 6.3-magnitude earthquake claimed 296 lives in dozens of towns and villages in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. About 50,000 people were driven from their homes, and thousands of buildings were toppled or extensively damaged.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the shoddy construction blamed for many of the building collapses, looking into both the work and materials. Some have alleged that sea sand illegally was mixed with cement, corroding it and weakening it.
The pope’s first stop of the three-hour visit was the tiny hamlet of Onna, where 267 survivors live in a handful of tents clustered in a parking lot left muddy by a steady rain that fell as the pope arrived. The pontiff walked amid Onna’s ruins, visiting its collapsed church, greeting civil protection crews and embracing the homeless who gathered for an intimate, brief visit.
Standing on a makeshift stage in front of a tent, a few hundred wet survivors crowding around him, he told them that God felt their pain — “the silent cries of the blood of mothers, fathers, young people and also the little innocents who left this land.”
He appealed to government institutions and companies to turn the relief work into long-term projects for quality rebuilding, saying the region needed “beautiful and solid” homes and churches.
Residents wept as the pope kissed babies, clutched their hands and comforted them.
“I must say that at the beginning I was unsure about the pope coming here,” said Vicenzo Pezzopane, a resident. “I thought he would just create more confusion, but in the end I was really impressed, really moved.”
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