Nuncio says God shares people's pain over losses caused by tsunamis

Published: 2005-01-11

NEW YORK (CNS) -- People who lost loved ones in the tsunamis that struck Asia and Africa Dec. 26 may not be able to find answers to the question of why, but they can find "a kind of solution," according to Archbishop Celestino Migliore. The Vatican nuncio to the United Nations said the solution could be found in seeing that "God's plan for us also leads him to share our pain and to assume our human sufferings in order to transform them." Archbishop Migliore was celebrant and homilist for a memorial Mass for tsunami victims Jan. 10 at Holy Family Church in New York. The Mass was arranged by Oblate Father George V. Perera, a Sri Lankan who is serving on the staff of Holy Family Church while he is doing graduate study at Jesuit-run Fordham University. Father Perera told Catholic News Service that his family lived inland from the coast and did not suffer directly from the tsunami. But he said some other people from the town were visiting the affected area and were lost. Some of his friends also lost relatives, he said.

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