Cardinal Sodano reminds tsunami victims of God’s closeness

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Yesterday evening in the Vatican Basilica Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano celebrated a Mass in the Pope's name for victims of the tsunami which devastated parts of South Asian on December 26.

Referring in his homily to the catastrophe of the event and its consequences, Cardinal Sodano affirmed that, "once again, man felt his insignificance with respect to the complexity of the planet on which we live. And so a natural interior impulse arose within us to look to the heavens, seeking a response to the many questions that arise in moments of confusion."

He went on, "Some people have even asked themselves how is it possible for man - who has managed to reach the moon, who has sent a probe to Titan more than a billion kilometers from earth - to be so impotent in the face of such disasters.”

And many others have asked whether Christian faith has a clear response to the enigma of pain. The response of the believer was immediate: Yes. God always loves men and women, and He is always close to them with a Father's love!"

The Secretary of State recalled that God "became man to share our existence, in the joyful and the sad moments of life."

Closing his homily, the Cardinal gave assurances that "in this moment of prayer, the Pope is near us, and with us he confides the souls of all those who died in the terrible tidal wave of Southeast Asia to the hands of God. ...”

The Vicar of Christ continues to call us to solidarity with our brothers and sisters" of the populations stricken by the tragedy.