Yolanda survivors’ stories reduced Pope to silence—Cardinal Tagle

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said on Saturday that Pope Francis told him that the stories of the survivors of super typhoon Yolanda had an intense impact on Pope Francis, even after his interaction with them was cut short by an oncoming storm.

The cardinal also said during a press briefing at Diamond Hotel that the pope had a ‘intense’ and 'emotional' half-day in Tacloban. 
 

“This visit is for me. I am learning,” Pope Francis was said to have told Tagle on the flight back to Manila. 

 

The Pope celebrated a Mass at the Tacloban Airport, had an open-vehicle motorcade to Palo town, listened to the stories of the Yolanda survivors over a quick lunch, and other activities before flying back to Manila early afternoon. 

Pope Francis was scheduled to leave Leyte at 5 p.m. but had to do so four hours earlier. Before an audience at the Palo Cathedral, the Pope himself said that the pilot of his aircraft insisted that they leave Leyte before the weather became too dangerous for flight.

 

When asked if he wanted to say a few words before bidding goodbye to the victims, Tagle said the Pope just said, "What can we say?"

 

"I thought he was going to repeat what he said during his Homily, but before these 30 persons, he himself was reduced to silence," Tagle said. —NB, GMA News