Amatrice solemn funeral. Bishop: “The earthquake does not kill, but the works of man” – The Republic

Rome – A long list of names. The bishop of Rieti Domenico Pompili, so begins the solemn funeral of the victims of amateur and Accumoli. With an appeal to broken lives, first and last names of an earthquake that crumbled the center of the country.

The coffins arrived three hours before the beginning of the ceremony, at 15, carried on the shoulders by the volunteers in the pouring rain that does not he never stopped falling. They have been arranged around the Istituto Don Minozzi. Of the 242 victims so far establish between amateur and Accumoli, 38 the coffins had to be present today. But ten remained at the small village cemetery. Hit by the earthquake , it is unfit for use, in the rain it was not possible to reach it. Of 28 coffins arriving from Rieti, two are white and small. Above they have the stuffed animals.

the destruction of Jerusalem, the description of dust and pieces that fall, the temple collapses. There is no rhetoric in the words of the bishop, that resonate strong, new shocks. “Earthquakes exist since there is land. The landscapes, mountains, fresh water, everything is due to earthquakes. Not even the man would exist without the earthquakes, the earthquake does not kill. They kill the works of man,” he says Msgr. Pompili. His is an invitation to look forward, not to wonder where God was when the earth trembled.

“God can not be used as the scapegoat” continue “on the contrary, it invites us to look at that ‘only direction as a possible salvation. In fact, the question’ Where is God? ‘ It should not be placed after but before, and always to interpret life and death. ” Because, he continues, “should be avoided to settle for pathetic answers and superstition limit. Like when you invoke fate, bad luck, the awesome coincidence of circumstances.”

brief homily, intense, in order to give strength to continue, beyond the controversy over the stones. The reconstruction should not be “a ‘political controversy’ or a form of looting of various kinds, but must revive a beauty of which we are custodians.” As for the solemn funeral on Saturday 27 took place at Ascoli, there are now in Amatrice President Sergio Mattarella, premier Renzi and the chairmen of the House and Senate Laura Boldrini and Pietro Grasso. With them also the president of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti, the mayor of Rome, Virginia Rays and President ANCI and former Mayor of Torino Piero Fassino. They are among the people, standing. “I will not leave you alone. When you turn off the cameras” had little Renzi said before the start of the funeral of a lady. The cameras today do not have framed them, and their crowns of flowers have not been laid on the coffins, a pastor to let them out.

Next to the bishop of Rieti, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the chaplain of Pope Francis, behind them, over the altar, the glimpse of a collapsed roof. And behind that, the trees, the Apennines. They came in their thousands to the funeral mass, from neighboring countries, from the most distant. Those who had to watch from the outside it is protected under the structure. All are wet with rain, with tears, with open umbrellas, red, white, colored. The bishop asks him to stay, to continue to arrive. “Deserting these places would kill them a second time,” he says. It “will not be enough days, it will take years. Above all it requires a quality of which Jesus is the interpreter: meekness. A tender and tenacious involvement, a strong and discreet embrace, a short-term commitment, medium and long term.”

the crucifix of the church that the citizens of amateur would have liked today at the funeral, is buried under the rubble. They have had a different one, taken from another village, hanging to the side of the shed, seems to fly. A Christ without a cross, a country without homes. There is still too much under the ruins. “As shown by a message in poetic form that I came over to the prayers: ‘By Jeremiah, the prophet, echoes the voice:’ Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no longer ‘. Do not abandon man Apennines: the shadow of your home will return to play on the homeland. Dell’alba even you will be amazed, “he concludes. Then the bishop thanked. The imam of Florence and President dell’Ucoi, and Orthodox bishop. Finally, he says, “I also thank all the authorities present. One for all the President of the Republic.” To close the ceremony the mayor of amateur: “These people are dead because he loved this land and we want to stay here,” he says. A loud applause from the crowd who filled the structure. Despite the bad weather, they arrived by the thousands, there were shuttles Cotral available. From Salaria through Borbona and other countries until the first barrier for amateur. Or from the exit that leads to St. George and crosses the lake Scanderello, always from the Salaria. The shed, about the size of a thousand square meters, was divided into two sectors. In the first, with about 1,300 seats, the altar, the coffins, the families of the victims and the authorities, in the second printing. Two thousand two hundred wafers, 16 priests to distribute them among the faithful.

“we do not come in Rieti there, give us back our dead.” And so it was. As clamored by amateur displaced, The funeral did not take place in the airport hangar of Rieti . The contested decision to make the funeral in Rieti had been taken for logistical reasons, for the road that remains complicated and then also for the severe weather alert. But the heart and emotion won on more rational choices. To coincide with the funeral, Prime Minister Renzi has ordered a national day of mourning.