Pope braves approaching storm to comfort typhoon victims
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Version 0 of 1. TACLOBAN, Philippines — Pope Francis braved an approaching tropical storm Saturday to travel to the far eastern Philippines to comfort survivors of the deadly Typhoon Haiyan. He was so emotionally undone by their loss that he barely found the words to offer solace, and then had to cut the trip short because of the dangerous weather. Before he left the typhoon-wracked city of Tacloban, a soaking wet Francis brought many in the crowd to tears as he ached at their suffering and recounted how in the days after the Nov. 8, 2013, storm he decided that he simply had to come in person to offer his comfort. “I wanted to come to be with you,” he told a rain-soaked crowd during Mass on a muddy airport field. “It’s a bit late, I have to say, but I am here.” Haiyan slammed the areas around Tacloban with a storm surge two stories high and some of the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone: 147 miles per hour, as clocked by U.S. satellites. It leveled villages, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions. “Pope Francis cannot give us houses and jobs, but he can send our prayers to God,” said Tacloban resident Ernesto Hengzon, 62. “I’m praying for good health and for my children, too. I am old and sickly. I’m praying that God will stop these big storms. We cannot take any more of it. We have barely recovered. Many people are still down there.” Francis joined Haiyan’s victims in solidarity, donning the same cheap, plastic yellow rain poncho over his vestments that Mass-goers were given to guard them against the latest storm to batter their island. It didn’t offer much protection. Francis insisted on traveling around Tacloban in his exposed, open-sided popemobile, and he and his aides were so drenched by the time they boarded the earlier-than-expected flight back to Manila that trip organizers begged the flight crew to cut the air conditioning lest they catch cold. The pope cut his visit to Tacloban short because of Tropical Storm Mekkhala, which made landfall on nearby Samar Island two hours after he left with winds of 60 to 80 miles per hour, the weather bureau said. The same weather system threatened to drown out Francis’s closing Mass on Sunday in Manila that had been expected to draw millions. Wind gusts in Tacloban were so strong that they knocked one of the large loudspeakers mounted for the Mass off its platform, hitting and killing a church volunteer, local media reports said. Police confirmed the 27-year-old woman’s death but didn’t say how the loudspeaker fell. Francis was informed of the death and asked his aides to investigate how he might share in the family’s grief, said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. While Francis’s jam-packed, eight-hour Tacloban itinerary was cut in half, he refused to cut anything out. So after an abbreviated, emotional Mass, he went to have a 15-minute lunch with 30 survivors of the typhoon and hear of their losses. “I’ll never forget the face of the Holy Father listening to each one,” Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle told reporters afterward, breaking down in tears. Learning of lost parents, husbands, sons and daughters, Francis was almost paralyzed by their suffering, he said. “When I asked him, ‘Do you want to say a few words?’ he said: ‘What can we say?’ I thought he would say the central message of his homily, but before these 30 persons he himself was reduced to silence: The communion and solidarity that happens in silence.” During Mass, a clearly moved Francis ditched his prepared texts and spoke off the cuff in his native Spanish — something he does when he wants to speak from the heart. And there again, he was rendered practically speechless. “So many of you have lost everything,” Francis told them. “I don’t know what to say to you, but the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent. And I walk with you all with my silent heart.” A police official estimated the crowd at 150,000 before the pope’s arrival and said tens of thousands more were lined up outside the airport area. Lombardi put the total figure at 300,000. Francis was informed Friday night that his plane’s pilots were concerned about the weather and wanted to leave Tacloban earlier than expected, Lombardi said. Francis readily agreed to cut the visit short, but said canceling it was out of the question. During the flight from Manila, the trip organizers were in contact with local authorities on the ground who were growing increasingly concerned about the rain and wind and suggested moving the Mass indoors, with TV screens beaming the proceedings to the crowds outside. “Absolutely no, it is impossible!” Lombardi quoted Francis as saying. “Where are the people? The people are on the ground, they’re out. We have to be with them and celebrate with them.” — Associated Press |