The BBC's Duncan Kennedy reports on today's open-air mass in L'Aquila for victims of Monday's earthquake in Italy.
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI's THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI's THE WORLD is the program audio.
MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Italy observed an official day of mourning today. The country paused to remember the 290 people who died after an earthquake struck the mountainous Abruzzo region. Thousands attended an open-air funeral mass in the city of L'Aquila. The BBC's Duncan Kennedy was there.
DUNCAN KENNEDY: Mourning for the dead of Abruzzo. Today on a police parade ground, 5,000 Italians came together in person and in prayer. In front of the altar, 205 coffins were laid out – small white ones for the children who died. In a message read out by a Papel aid, Pope Benedict spoke of his sadness. “I ask God to dry each tear,†he said. Cardinal Bertoni said in his homely that victims had been cruelly taken prematurely, but that love would prevail. Names of the victims were read out as news came through of two more bodies found in the rubble. Families of the victims were joined by the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and other political figures. This was Italy's day of public grieving and also one of private reflection.
WERMAN: That report from the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in L'Aquila, the Italian city hardest hit by Monday's earthquake.
transcript