The Archbishop of Valencia presided over Mass celebrated by the Spanish bishops in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid 19 November to pray for all those affected by end-of-October tragic floods in Valencia, Albacete and Cuenca, where over 200 people lost their lives.
“When we think of the deceased and their families who have been broken, of the people who have lost their homes, their jobs … our feelings are so deep that words seem insufficient to convey a message of hope,” Archbishop Enrique Benavent of Valencia said in his homily.
At the beginning of Mass, attended by civil and religious authorities and packed with Madrid’s faithful, Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, addressed those present, highlighting the importance of “personal charity” towards people who have suffered the effects of storm DANA but also “social and political charity, essential when addressing reconstruction and care.”
Archbishop Argüello opened the bishops’ plenary 18 November by offering a prayer “for the eternal rest of those who died as a result of the fierce floods in Valencia, Albacete and other places in our land.”
Before the Spanish bishops’ plenary started, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, visited Valencia 15 November in a gesture of solidarity with the suffering region. “Here the church does not speak, it acts,” prioritising “what the people need,” he said.