Francis in Tacloban: ‘It was God’s way of making the Pope feel as we felt’

Pope Francis points at the statue of Jesus during his speech in Tacloban, Philippines, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015. A rain-drenched but lively crowd wearing yellow and white raincoats welcomed Pope Francis in the typhoon-ravage central Philippine city of Tacloban early Saturday, chanting “Papa Francesco, Viva il Papa!” (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—“His heart was with Tacloban. He was one of us,” a resident said.

Pope Francis on Saturday delivered a stirring and powerful tribute to tens of thousands of survivors of Super typhoon “Yolanda” here under raging skies that served as an eerie reminder of the
events of Nov. 8, 2013.

For a few precious moments, the Tacloban folk felt one with the Pope, as he comforted them 14 months after the devastation of the world’s strongest storm on record, which killed more than 7,000 people in Eastern Visayas and brought this coastal city to its knees.

“I’m here to be with you. A little bit late, I have to say, but I’m here,” said the Pontiff.

“I would like to tell you something close to my heart: When I saw from Rome that catastrophe, I felt that I had to be here. And on those very days I decided to come here,” Francis said to cheers.

He was mostly somber, at times breaking into a smile, clad in the same plastic yellow raincoat that most in the audience were also wearing.

“My heart felt like bursting,” said Aldim Roda, 51, a high school teacher.

“His message in his homily will give us strength. I was about to collapse, but I prayed so much and I listened to his intention based on his words. His heart was with Tacloban. He was one of us,” he said.

The message Francis delivered was one of love, tenderness and an enduring faith, and as well the promise that the people of Tacloban were not alone.

“So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you, but the Lord does know what to say to you,” the Pope said.

“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. Many of you have asked the Lord, ‘Why, Lord?’ And to each of you, Christ responds from His heart upon the Cross,” he said.

“I have no more words to tell you. Let us look to Christ. He is the Lord. He understands us because He underwent all the trials that we, that you, have experienced,” he said.

Thousands alternately wept and smiled, hanging on to every word the Pope spoke during his homily, which he delivered in Spanish. They absorbed each little smile and gesture, in a rapturous show of
adoration that perhaps only Filipinos could deliver.

Vicenta Ochea, 54, a vocational teacher, said Francis “gave life and strength to all Taclobanons.”

“I cried. It was so heart-tugging,” she said.

She recalled the surging waters and furious winds that destroyed her family’s home during Yolanda’s onslaught. “But with God’s mercy, we all survived. Even when we lost everything, the important thing is we were all safe,” she said.

Torrential downpours drenched the crowds in the open field at the apron of the Daniel Z. Romualdez airport, where Francis’ plane landed at 8:47 a.m., about an hour earlier than scheduled.

As the Philippine Airlines flight touched down at the tarmac, the waiting audience let out a collective shriek, many of them twirling their hankies in quick circular motions, in greeting, like butterflies
fluttering under the weeping clouds.

“For some reason I am not afraid of this rain. It feels like nothing to me,” said Marichu Ulam, 53.

She was afraid of Yolanda. But the typhoon Amang was weak compared to it, she said.

After all, she lost a daughter, Anjanette Azul, who was seven months pregnant, to the monster storm.

“The people are happy. His coming helps alleviate our pain. We want to move on, and we want to recover. The Pope has helped us heal,” Ulam said.

After the Mass, Francis entered the open-topped Popemobile and greeted long stretches of the crowd. He made a few stops every time something caught his eye.

One of the lucky ones was Macky Macalla, 31, an elementary schoolteacher in Tanauan, a town south of Tacloban. He was clutching a small Sto Nino figurine bedecked in green.

The Pope stopped and took the religious icon, which Macalla bought in Cebu during its famed Sinulog festival. “He kissed and blessed it,” Macalla said, beaming.

“I just took a chance trying to catch him. I learned he was coming here, so I changed position and ran towards the corner, where it was not so crowded,” he said.

“This will be like a relic now. I will tell everyone that this was blessed by the Pope himself,” he said.

Macalla said the Sto. Nino was particularly important to him, as he believed it helped him survive Yolanda.

As he and his family members were running to escape the giant storm surges spawned by the typhoon, “this was the image I was carrying,” he recalled. “So when I learned that the Pope was coming, I thought to myself that I need to bring this to him.”

As he listened to the Pope’s homily, he said he could not help his tears from falling. “He really gave us inspiration, [reminding us] that the Lord is with us to lift our spirits.”

Efren Abrematea, 47, a former overseas Filipino worker, said he felt that the stormy Saturday weather was in some way a “blessing” from the heavens.

“Maybe it was God’s way of making the Pope feel as we felt,” he said, shivering in his raincoat. “Because of this, he can truly understand us and what we have gone through.”

And for many in the audience who watched the Pope’s vestments getting soaked and his gray hair dancing in the turbulent wind, and as they listened to his moving words, it seemed he really did.