Pope demands soul-searching after Italy quake

L’AQUILA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI embraced the survivors of Italy’s deadly earthquake Tuesday as he walked through their muddy tent camp and demanded “serious soul-searching” from those responsible for the shoddy construction blamed for many of the 296 deaths.

In his first visit to central Italy since the April 6 quake, Benedict toured the three symbols of destruction that have come to epitomize the region’s grief: the leveled hamlet of Onna, where 40 of the 300 residents died, the crumbled basilica of L’Aquila, and the ruins of a university dormitory whose collapse has spurred criminal probes into negligence.

Showing a relaxed, pastoral side rarely seen in the Vatican’s typically controlled appearances, Benedict prayed with the quake’s homeless in the rain, telling them that the church was suffering along with them and that they should keep up hope and rebuild, better than before.

But at the same time, he told them that “As a civil community, some serious soul-searching is necessary, so that at any moment responsibilities never fail.”

“If this happens, L’Aquila — though wounded — will be able to fly again,” Benedict said, referring to the city’s name, eagle.

The 6.3-magnitude quake claimed 296 lives in the dozens of towns and villages in the Abruzzo region of central Italy affected. About 50,000 people were driven from their homes, and thousands of buildings were toppled or heavily damaged.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the shoddy construction blamed for many of the building collapses, looking into both the construction work and materials used amid allegations that sea sand was illegally mixed with cement, corroding it and weakening it.

The pope’s first stop of the three-hour visit was the tiny hamlet of Onna, where 267 survivors live in a handful of tents clustered in a parking lot left muddy by a steady rain that fell as the pope arrived. The pontiff walked amid Onna’s ruins, visiting its collapsed church, greeting civil protection crews and embracing the homeless who gathered for an intimate, brief visit.

Standing on a makeshift stage in front of a tent, a few hundred wet survivors crowding around him, he told them that God felt their pain — “the silent cries of the blood of mothers, fathers, young people and also the little innocents who left this land.”

He appealed to government institutions and companies to turn the relief work into long-term projects for quality rebuilding, saying the region needed “beautiful and solid” homes and churches.

Residents wept as the pope kissed babies, clutched their hands and comforted them.

“I must say that at the beginning I was unsure about the pope coming here,” said resident Vicenzo Pezzopane. “I thought he would just create more confusion, but in the end I was really impressed, really moved.”

In L’Aquila, the regional capital, Benedict met with a dozen students outside what remains of L’Aquila’s collapsed university dormitory, for days a main focal point of grief as rescue workers searched the debris for students trapped inside. At least seven died at the site.

The students knelt before the pope and kissed his hand, some visibly emotional. One gave him a letter.

“The pope gave us a sign of hope, he asked about our studies, our daily lives,” the ANSA news agency quoted student Stefano Calvano as saying. “He knew that among the students there are many future engineers, and he said he hoped that these engineering studies would be useful in future construction to prevent other disasters.”

The dorm is one of the focal points of prosecutors’ investigations, as well as L’Aquila’s hospital, both of which were built after seismic standards in this quake-prone region were raised.

The pontiff also visited the ruins of the 13th-century Santa Maria di Collemaggio basilica, the symbol of the city whose roof partially caved in during the quake.

Walking amid the rubble piled up inside the church, firefighters by his side, the pontiff prayed before the salvaged remains of Pope Celestine V, the 13th-century hermit and saint who was the only pope to voluntarily resign.

“Now that I see the destruction with my own eyes I can see that it is even worse than I had imagined,” the pope said, according to the Rev. Nunzio Spinelli, the basilica’s rector.

During a speech to rescue crews and survivors, Benedict stumbled slightly on a step, but regained his balance without falling.

The pontiff had been scheduled to fly to the area by helicopter, but heavy winds and rains forced the Vatican to scrap that plan. Benedict was driven instead, and by the time his speech was concluded in Onna, a strong sun briefly broke through the clouds.

“Imagine the pope, coming to this village,” marveled Concetta De Angelis, tears in her eyes just moments after the pope greeted her in Onna. “A pope has never come here. This village isn’t even on the map!”

Her friend, Silvana Paolucci, was even more emotional, saying she had wept as soon as she was face-to-face with the pontiff. “He embraced us, he touched my cheek. It was beautiful,” said Paolucci, who lost an aunt and nephew in the quake and whose home was rendered uninhabitable.

Benedict had said he had wanted to visit the area sooner, but didn’t want to interfere with relief work.

In 1980 Pope John Paul II traveled to Naples almost immediately after a devastating quake — a visit that was criticized because the heavy security arrangements complicated rescue work. After the 1997 quake in Umbria, John Paul waited over three months before visiting the area.

Volunteer civil protection member Gianpiero Trulli, tending to the homeless in Onna, said the pope’s visit had slightly increased the workload of the relief workers. But he said he understood the significance of the visit for the survivors’ spirits.

“For them, it’s important that the church is here,” he said.

Associated Press writer Alessandra Rizzo contributed to this report from Rome.