This land shall rise again

“Dear friends, my presence among you wishes to be a tangible sign of the fact that the crucified Lord has risen and will not abandon you; he will not leave your questions about your future unheard; he is not deaf to the anxious cries of so many families who have lost everything: homes, savings, jobs and at times also human lives”. So said Benedict XVI during his visit to the areas of the Abruzzo struck by the earthquake of 6 April that caused 295 deaths and left thousands homeless. Visiting the stricken area on Tuesday 28 April, the Pope gave words of comfort to the populations. The first leg of his tour of the region was Onna, the little town in the province of L’Aquila, one of the worst damaged by the quake. Of course, observed the Holy Father, the “concrete response” of the Lord “is expressed through our solidarity, which cannot be limited to the initial emergency, but must become a lasting and concrete project in time”. He therefore gave his encouragement to “everyone, institutions and enterprises, so that this city and this land may rise again”. Embrace. “I would like to embrace you with affection one by one”, said the Pope, underlining the closeness of the Church which – he declared – “is here with me, close to your sufferings, sharing your grief for the loss of family members and friends, and anxious to help you in reconstructing your homes, churches, and business premises that collapsed or were gravely damaged by the earthquake”. “I have admired the courage, dignity and faith – he added – with which you faced this ordeal, showing great determination not to succumb to adversity”. This is not in fact “the first earthquake that your region has experienced, and now, as in the past, you did not surrender; you did not lose heart. There’s a strength of spirit in you that arouses hope”. Memory and future. Benedict XVI then visited the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio at L’Aquila, where he paid homage to the tomb of Celestine V, pausing to pray before it and laying his own papal pallium on the urn that contains the mortal remains of the man who was pope for six months in 1294 – and that had been removed for safekeeping following the quake and then reinstalled to coincide with the papal visit. The Pope then had a meeting in front of the Students’ Hostel at L’Aquila that collapsed in a pile of rubble during the quake: there he met a group of twelve students, six girls and six boys, all residents in the historic city centre, and some in this very hostel that collapsed. He greeted them one by one, bending towards them to shake their hands and to listen with close attention to what they wished to tell him. Examination of conscience. “The tragic event of the earthquake urges both the civil community and the Church to engage in a profound reflection”. In particular, “the civil community needs to conduct a serious examination of conscience, so that the level of responsibility, at all times, never be lowered”. Only “on this condition can L’Aquila [the Eagle], even if injured, continue to fly”: with these words the Pope ended the address he pronounced in the piazza of the Guardia di Finanza barracks at Coppito, last leg of his tour. Benedict XVI stressed, in particular, the “value and importance of solidarity, which, although expressed especially at times of crisis, is like a fire hidden below the ashes”. “Solidarity – he explained – is a highly civic and Christian sentiment and a gauge of a society’s maturity”; “it is manifested in rescue work, but it is not only an efficient organizational machine”: “there’s a spirit, there’s a passion, that derives precisely from the great civil and Christian history of our people, whether it be expressed in institutional forms, or in volunteer service”. Lastly, the Pope addressed a special prayer to the Madonna of Roio, much loved by the people of the Abruzzo, before whose statue Benedict XVI left a golden rose.Solidarity without frontiers. Meanwhile, solidarity with the earthquake victims knows no frontiers, neither geographical, nor religious. On Tuesday 28 April, ten Muslim volunteers also greeted the Pope during his visit to Onna; they are involved alongside Caritas and other associations in providing the canteen and kitchen services for the earthquake victims. In a briefing to SIR Europe, Monsignor Vittorio Nozza, director of Italian Caritas, said that “messages of solidarity and offers of aid continue to pour in from Caritas throughout the world”. Mgr. Nozza particularly underlined “the contribution that has arrived from countries like Somalia, Georgia and Bosnia-Hervegovina which, in spite of their difficulties, have wished to demonstrate in concrete terms their closeness to the victims”. “The one thousand euro donated by Somalia and the two thousand by Georgia might seem a pittance in comparison with the tons of aid that have poured in, but they are a very great sign of solidarity on the part of these Churches”, he said. As far as Europe is concerned, material humanitarian aid has arrived from Caritas in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Switzerland and Bosnia-Herzegovina; messages of solidarity have also been received from Caritas in Kosovo, Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Moldavia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and Hungary. Solidarity has also been expressed by Australia, the Middle East and the Arab world.