Pope wants to visit Leyte

MANILA, Philippines - Pope Francis may visit the areas ravaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda, according to an official of the Vatican.

A report on CBCPNews, the official news service provider of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, announced during a mass at the La Libertad
Mission Church in Palo, Leyte on Tuesday that Pope Francis wants to visit Yolanda victims.

“You go now because I might be going there also,” the 68-year-old Sarah quoted the Pope as telling him, drawing cheers from churchgoers.

“I would not tell you the date but the Holy Father has been telling me ‘I might be also going there’,” he added.

Pope Francis sent Sarah to the country to check on the progress of rehabilitation efforts and extend more assistance to typhoon survivors.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi earlier said the Pope might visit Daejeon, South Korea in August for the Asian Youth Day. It would be his first visit to Asia since he was elected pope in March last year.

Palo Archbishop John Du is elated by Sarah’s announcement.

“Of course, we are very happy. People were really clapping,” Du said, as he asked the faithful to continue praying so that the papal visit will push through.

Sarah went around Tacloban City and Palo town and led in the distribution of relief goods. He also visited the Sisters of Mercy Hospital, a health facility dedicated to the poor, in Tacloban City and the Sacred Heart Seminary in Palo.

At the compound of the Archbishop’s Residence, also in Palo, Sarah led the groundbreaking ceremony for a proposed orphanage, clinic and home for the elderly.

Du said Cor Unum, an administrative body that handles the Vatican’s charitable activities, would finance the construction of the facilities.

The project includes a small convent for the nuns who would administer the facilities, a chapel and a dispensary.

Sarah returned to Manila Tuesday afternoon. He is set to fly back to Rome today.

Listen to Yolanda survivors

Meanwhile, CBCP president Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas asked the government and donors to listen to the needs of Yolanda survivors.

Villegas said representatives of his archdiocese went to Catarman, Northern Samar and was surprised to learn that the people there do not want hollow blocks and galvanized iron sheets as materials in the construction of their new homes.

He said the people preferred pawid (palm leaves) and sawali (interwoven splits of bamboo), citing people who were hit by GI sheets and died at the height of Yolanda.

“The important thing is they listen to the people… If the people were asking for that kind of housing then we accommodate them. They should be respectful because when we reach out in compassion it should not be a relationship of donor and beneficiary, it should be a relationship of equals that we are brothers and therefore I’m listening to you not for a higher level but at the same level because we are both wounded, we are both needy,” he said.