Francis brings God’s love to Yolanda survivors

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – The situation at the Daniel Z. Romualdez airport hours prior to the arrival of Pope Francis brought to life memories of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

“A lot of people were here after the typhoon. They were trying to escape the city,” a local observed amid throngs of people lining up to get through the security check. “People wanted to leave and save themselves, their loved ones.”

The weather did not help.

By midnight, the temperature has started dropping to an unbearable level. The biting cold was aggravated by the rain and the winds brought by the incoming storm.

The people, armed with flimsy yellow plastic ponchos distributed by the organizers, started getting restless. While some remained immobile on the ground trying to get some sleep, others started looking for remedies to combat the cold.

The emcee, tasked to keep the crowd “metaphorically” alive throughout the night, started advising those in the area to keep moving around their respective assigned sections to keep themselves warm.

At first light, the situation became worse. The drizzle had turned into a moderate downpour, leaving people drenched and freezing.

Dozens had already been brought to mobile hospitals due to chills, cough or colds. Children as young as five years old were brought to the media tent after they developed fever.

The similarities did not escape those eagerly awaiting the pope’s arrival.

One journalist covering the papal mass who also covered the typhoon in 2013 observed how the image of immobile people on the ground stirred a “certain memory on this familiar ground.”

Indeed, it was familiar – but not quite.

Despite the gloomy weather, the general mood of the thousands – around 200,000 according to estimates – who flocked to the apron of the airport where the papal mass was set to be held was ecstatic.

Unlike in the case of Yolanda, where people were forced to flee their homes, the decision to be at the airport to see and listen to the pontiff was a conscious choice.

Even with the lack of sleep, fatigue from walking kilometers to the airport and the chilling cold worsened by the rains, the faithful remained animated as the expected arrival of the pope neared.

Cheers erupted when it was announced that the plane carrying the pope left Manila 45 minutes earlier than his actual schedule. The worsening weather was not enough to stop the pope from his main objective in coming to the Philippines: to be with the survivors of Yolanda.

‘Symbol of life’

Fr. Amadeo Alvero, spokesman of the Archdiocese of Palo, said the Tacloban City airport has become a symbol of life for those devastated by Yolanda.

“The decision to hold the papal mass here is very symbolic. Before, the people left their homes to escape from the devastation of the typhoon. Now they left their homes to see the pope,” he told STARweek in Filipino.

Alvero noted that in 2013, after Yolanda, the people wanted to leave the city because they wanted to survive.

“Now they want to be spiritually alive by listening to the message of the Holy Father.”

The priest said the determination shown by the people shows how excited they are. “They know that the pope really cares for all of us,” he said.

The crowd erupted in cheers as the PAL plane carrying the pope started its descent. All the exhaustion lifted when Pope Francis stepped out of the plane, smiling upon hearing chants of “Viva il Papa! Papa Francesco!”

According to organizers, the pope balked at ideas such as canceling his trip to Leyte or celebrating the mass at another venue due to the bad weather.

“Where are the people? The people are on the ground. They’re out. We have to be with them and celebrate with them,” Francis was quoted as saying by Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi.

‘I am here to be with you’

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said the pope experienced several firsts during his visit to Leyte: the first time that he celebrated an open air mass during stormy weather and – to the surprise of the crowd – the first time he did so wearing a plastic raincoat.

“He’s just like us,” said one of those who attended the mass upon seeing the pontiff wearing the same poncho as everybody else.

With his trademark mischievous smile, the pontiff proceeded with the open-air celebration of the Eucharist as the crowd stood in silence amid heavy rain and strong winds.

The cheerful mood turned somber as the pope, who appeared overwhelmed over the situation, started his homily. The pope spent a few minutes in silence before asking if he could speak in his native Spanish.

“I have translator, I brought a translator. May I do it? May I?” the pope asked, to which the crowd replied in the affirmative.

Many wept unabashedly as the pope reiterated his purpose for the trip to the Philippines.

“I’d like to tell you something close to my heart. When I saw from Rome that catastrophe, I know I had to be here. And on those very days I decided to come here,” he told the pilgrims.

“So many of you have lost everything; I don’t know what to say to you... Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silence and walk with you all with my silent heart,” he added.

Doing away with his prepared homily written in English, Francis poured his heart out to condole with the victims of the typhoon, at a loss for words toward the end of his homily.

“Forgive me if I have no other words to express myself. Please know that Jesus never lets you down. Know that the tenderness of Mary never lets you down,” he said.

The pope called for a minute of silence and asked the faithful to reflect on their situation and their relationship with Jesus and Mary.

“We are like a little child in the moments when we have so much pain and no longer understand anything,” he said.

‘Reject corruption,care for the poor’

Francis had to cut short his trip to Leyte by four hours due to the worsening storm.

Despite this, he was able to finish, albeit in a rush, his scheduled activities in Palo town: lunch with Yolanda and earthquake survivors, the blessing of the Pope Francis Center for the Poor and the meeting with the religious people at the Palo Cathedral.

“I apologize to you all. I’m sad about this, truly saddened, because I have something prepared especially for you. But let us leave everything in the hands of our Lady because I have to go now,” the pope said to the religious.

The Vatican later released the pope’s undelivered homily and speech in Leyte, where he reiterated the need to care for the poor and shun injustice and corruption.

In his prepared homily, Francis talked about the evils brought about by the disaster.

“But you have also seen, in the profiteering, the looting and the failed responses to this great human drama, so many tragic signs of the evil from which Christ came to save us,” he said.

He called on the faithful to pray for us to overcome sin and selfishness.

“Let us pray in particular that it will make everyone more sensitive to the cry of our brothers and sisters in need. Let us pray that it will lead to a rejection of all forms of injustice and corruption which, by stealing from the poor, poison the very roots of society,” he said.

In his prepared speech that was to be delivered in front of the religious at Palo Cathedral, Francis noted that there is much to be done for the underprivileged.

“I ask that the poor throughout this country be treated fairly – that their dignity be respected, that political and economic policies be just and inclusive, that opportunities for employment and education be developed, and that obstacles to the delivery of social services be removed.

“Our treatment of the poor is the criterion on which each of us will be judged.”

The pontiff asked the religious to renew their commitment to social justice and the betterment of the poor both in Palo and in the Philippines as a whole.

Salamat, Pope Francis

The people of Leyte, most of whom were only able to see the pope for a split second during the motorcade, expressed gratitude to the Holy Father for his determination to visit the province despite the threat of the storm.

“We deeply appreciated each and every sincere, comforting and uplifting word – and silence – that he shared with us, something that even the highest of authorities in our nation could not give us over a year after Yolanda leveled our communities,” said Efleda Bautista of People’s Surge, a network of Yolanda survivors. “Never before did we see such words of solidarity as asking for ‘the poor throughout this country to be treated fairly’.”

“For the longest time, we the poor have been squarely faulted for our abject plight, that we should be just thankful that at least we’re still alive, and that we are villains for desperately looting for food, water and possible sources of income to get us through the disquieting days ahead.”

According to Bautista, the pope’s statement calling for deeper understanding and solidarity to the predicament of the poor is justice served to the countless of survivors of calamities.

Following the papal mass, the thousands who flocked to the airport – as well as the police tasked to ensure the security of the pontiff – enthusiastically trudged the mud and the small pools of rainwater that developed over night.

Other than the raincoat and a bottle of water, nothing was given to them by the organizers. But they left with much more than what they asked for.