Bishop: Yolanda destructive but transformative

MANILA, Philippines - Super Typhoon Yolanda may have been destructive, but for Borongan Eastern Samar Bishop Crispin Varquez, it was transformative as it changed the people’s view on life.

In an interview over the Church-run Radio Veritas, Var-quez said something good could be drawn from the calamity that claimed more than 6,000 lives and turned many parts of Eastern Visayas into a wasteland.

“There is a lesson that can be learned from this calamity. I have said that Yolanda was so destructive and yet its effect on us was transformative,” Varquez said.

He said Yolanda transformed the way the people look at their fellowmen.

“It is real conversion,” he said.

The prelate said the Nov. 8 tragedy deepened the people’s faith this Christmas, that nothing could stop them from celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Although many churches were ruined, people attended the masses. Despite the meager food, families shared their noche buena or Christmas Eve feast.

Pope Francis, in his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) message, lifted the spirits of the people of Eastern Visayas as he appealed to the 1.2 billion Catholics to pray for them.