7 hours Ago By John Sitchon
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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-1" );LEYTE, Philippines – Why were the people of Tacloban and Palo town in Leyte especially hit hard when they heard about the death of Pope Francis? Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, was certainly more than the conventional persona of the Holy Father, a figure enveloped in primacy and papal infallibility.His peers in Rome and followers in the Philippines viewed him as a “radicalist” for criticizing the Church’s self-referential nature, insisting that the church must make its voyage to the peripheries.
It was this ideology that endeared him to Leyteños.On March 13, 2013, Bergoglio was elected the new pope after Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. Months later, Super Typhoon Yolanda struck various parts of the Philippines, taking thousands of lives, leaving families in disarray, most especially in Eastern Visayas.
In May 2014, Pope Francis confirmed his visit to the country, specifying in his itinerary his plans to go to the Archdiocese of Palo in Leyte. Less than a year later, on a rainy January 17, 2015, a smiling Pope Francis, clad in a yellow rain coat appeared before Leyteños, presenting himself to the peripheries — in all aspects of the word. “The Pope’s visit ignited the candle of hope burning in our hearts.
We were able to feel the loving embrace of God with his presence,” Palo Archbishop John Du said in a homily on April 26, days after the pope’s death.At their most vulnerable moment, the late pontiff gave them an invaluable gift which Du described as “part of the great miracle that helped Leyte recover.”This is why, among Filipinos, those Leyte communities were especially saddened over the death of the man helped them get through a very trying time.
Courage made manifestDuring his 2015 visit, Francis held a mass at the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City. “[The pope] was always telling me, you are courageous, I said no, you are courageous.
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He would say courageous, courageous people under the rain...
the word is always repeated as he waved to the people,” Du said.While inspiring others, the archbishop recalled that the pope never hesitated to display and verbalize his worries over the circumstances that plagued the people of Leyte — his people. window.
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displayAd( "mobile-middle-2" );“I could feel that he is human like us,” the archbishop said.This affirmation of the fear brought about by disaster moved the people of Leyte even more when the pope pushed through with his visit to the province amid the threat of Tropical Storm Amang encroaching on the shores of Tacloban.Prior to his flight to Tacloban, Leyte was placed under storm warning signal No.
2, casting doubts on his appearance before Yolanda survivors.“When I saw from Rome that catastrophe I had to be here. And on those very days I decided to come here.
I am here to be with you — a little bit late, but I’m here,” the pope said in his 2015 homily at the Tacloban airport.At least 200,000 people attended the papal mass and heard these words from Pope Francis.On Saturday, April 26, the same families who witnessed Pope Francis’ visit came in droves at the masses dedicated to the beloved Holy Father at the Daniel Z.
Romualdez Airport and the Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lord’s Transfiguration in Palo town.To stand upPalo Archdiocese Vicar General Gilbert Urbina was among the members of the church who organized the mass at the Tacloban airport. He was reunited with his fellow organizers during the requiem mass held in Palo.
“Even when it was raining, all the people were lined up in the streets from the airport to Palo...
despite the rain, they were singing,” Urbina told Rappler on Saturday, April 26. The distance between the Daniel Z. Romualdez airport and the Palo cathedral is around 10.
8 kilometers. According to Urbina, people were already lined up along the streets a day before the pope’s arrival.“Looking back, the Holy Father really had to go through what the people have gone through,” Urbina said.
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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-3" );Based on 2014 data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the entire country suffered a total of 6,300 deaths and an estimated P95.48 billion in damage due to Yolanda.
At present, most of the families who lost their homes due to Yolanda were given new houses in the Pope Francis Village in Barangay New Kawayan, Tacloban City. The village was built through the collaboration of SM Cares, ANCOP Canada, and the Archdiocese of Palo, as a direct result of the papal visit.The pope also inaugurated and blessed the Pope Francis Home for the Orphans and the Elderly during his apostolic visit, providing shelter to Yolanda victims.
Play Video“It was a singular grace given to those who are here, to the Archdiocese, to those who were around then, and beautiful experience that we can hold on in our hearts and cherish until the end of our lives,” Urbina said. For Urbina, the Leyteños would always remember the visit and the man who stood in solidarity with them in their darkest hour. – Rappler.
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