Meeting parents of kidnapped British girl, pope offers prayers

Published: 2007-05-30

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI, meeting the parents of a 4-year-old British girl apparently kidnapped while the family was on vacation in Portugal, blessed a photograph of the little girl and offered his prayers. Kate and Gerry McCann, the Catholic parents of Madeleine, who has been missing since May 3, met the pope at the end of his weekly general audience May 30 in St. Peter's Square. When they handed him the photograph, the pope caressed it. "His thoughts and touch and words were more tender than we could have imagined," Gerry McCann told reporters afterward. "Today, meeting the pontiff was an experience that has very mixed emotions for us," he said. "In ordinary circumstances, of course, it would be the highlight (in the life) of any Catholic to come and meet the pope, but it is saddened with the very marked realization that our daughter is still missing." Madeleine disappeared May 3 from the hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where her family was vacationing. The parents had left Madeleine and her 2-year-old twin siblings alone in the room while they went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. Police believe the girl was abducted.

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