No one in Spain, but especially in the area of Valencia and Albacete, will forget, for a long time, the afternoon of October 29, 2024. On that day, a cold drop or isolated depression at high levels (DANA) caused torrential rains in the Spanish Levante area and the overflowing of several rivers and ravines in the Spanish Mediterranean area.
The mud and water reached two meters in several localities, especially in the southern area of the Valencian capital and nearby towns such as Catarroja, Paiporta, Algamesí or Aldaya, dragging cars, flooding houses, garages and stores and, above all, taking the lives of more than two hundred people.
More than 30,000 people had to be rescued by neighbors, at first, and later by law enforcement.
A catastrophe that was also an internal and external "earthquake" for the Church: priests, nuns and volunteers of all ages took to the streets to help those who had lost everything.
The parishes of many localities are, even today, a point of distribution of material aid and spiritual comfort. In this context we spoke with Enrique Benavent, Archbishop of Valencia, who highlights in this interview the impressive response of so many people, the closeness of the Pope to the Valencian people and above all, the need to be a sign of hope at this time.
How do you remember October 29, 2024?
-At first we didn't really know what had happened. It was not until the following day that we began to realize the magnitude of the tragedy that was unfolding.
My first concern was to check on the priests, to see how they were, to see if anything had happened to anyone. It took me two days to hear from everyone and to see that they were all well. The same with the seminarians in the area and their families. Some had suffered material damage, others had not. But thank God there had been no personal misfortune.
I also convoked a first Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken, where I gave two messages: The first was to put the whole diocesan Church at the service of the people in need and the second that we should offer ourselves, that everyone would find in Christians a helping hand. In those first days I began to visit the parishes that had been affected, starting with those in the city of Valencia, because in the first days access to the parishes and towns outside the city was complicated if not impossible.
What did you find during these visits?
-I have seen much suffering, much pain, much sadness in many people. Some priests said, already in the first days, funeral Masses, in a very discreet atmosphere. Families who have suffered the loss of a loved one do not want to appear too much in public.
In my visits I spoke with people who have lost not only their homes but their entire living environment: the bakery where they go for bread, the store where they used to go shopping... Everything has disappeared under the mud. The Huerta Sur region is possibly one of the areas with the highest concentration of family businesses, small businesses, car dealerships, shopping malls...
When a person loses all vital references, he suddenly finds himself disoriented. Everyone was grateful for the visit, that you were close to them. They were grateful that we celebrated the Eucharist, as we did in parishes like the one in Paiporta, because it is a sign of how faith has to help us to illuminate this reality we are living.
How does faith console in these times of desolation?
-I think that the first thing to do is to get close to those affected, showing the love and closeness of the Lord to those who suffer. May they not feel alone, may they not feel ignored, may they not feel abandoned. Afterwards, the pain will give way, with time, to new feelings. The most important thing about accompaniment is knowing how to find the right word at the right time. I think the key is to be that presence. Now that some parishes are becoming centers for the distribution of basic necessities, as in La Torre, they celebrate Mass in the square many times. And people appreciate it and respect those celebrations, because it is a sign that we are there. Small signs that, in some way, manifest the presence of the Church and the presence of faith as a small light, but that has to illuminate the lives of these people.
We have seen priests up to their necks in mud, nuns unloading pallets and many, many young people who have responded to a call for solidarity and are still there. Is it a time to rediscover the power of the call to help others?
-I think that these occasions can become a call for young people. In fact, they have responded. I have seen them there. Many of them recognized me on my visits to the villages and were happy to see me.
In addition, I have seen how there are many young people who may not be Christians, but they have also gone to help. It has been a beautiful testimony of how, in those moments, we have felt as brothers of those who suffered the most. It is a testimony of an authentic solidarity, because it is disinterested, as I pointed out in the homily of the Mass for the affected people that all the Spanish bishops celebrated in the Almudena Cathedral during the days of the Plenary Assembly of November 2024.
Weeks have passed since those early days in November. How will the Church continue to be present in this long-term process? Have you been working on this?
-Caritas is, from the beginning, trying to respond to urgent needs, those first needs. We have had many donations, so many that sometimes we did not know where to store them.
With an eye to the future, the donations we are receiving will help families in need to solve some long-term problem. Not all of them, because the destruction is immense. There are towns, like Paiporta, where you can't buy bread or oil, because everything has been razed to the ground...
A long task of reconstruction lies ahead, in which the first to take the initiative and provide the means must be the authorities. The Church will help, because there will always be people for whom public aid will not solve their needs. And maybe ours won't either, but if we can help a little to, I don't know, lessen the pain, we will be there. The important thing now is to look at the people in need.
We have had meetings with the episcopal vicars and the parish priests of the affected parishes to make a common reflection and consider both the material damages and the pastoral care in these circumstances.
The Church has always been present in the neighborhoods, and that is what parishes are for. The parishes are the presence of the Church in the neighborhoods of the cities or in the towns and for this reason we will continue to be attentive to the situations of the people who live in these neighborhoods, who live in these towns and who need help. We have methods of listening, of accompaniment, and we will put all this at the service of these parishes and of those who need it.
You received the visit of Cardinal Czerny and the Pope has followed Valencia very closely during these months.
-For the priests and for the diocese, they have been very close, very consoling gestures. The Pope has been very close, from a first recorded message he sent me through the President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, to a personal phone call, two allusions at the Angelus and a moment of prayer before an image of the Virgin of the Forsaken, which we gave him half a year ago, during a visit of the Board of the Archconfraternity of the Virgin.
Thousands of people were left with nothing overnight. Sometimes we complain about the difficulty of preaching in an affluent environment that has everything, but what about preaching for those who have lost everything? Is it easier or the other way around?
-I don't know, honestly, because the person who has suffered has his or her strong questions of faith at this time. What is clear is that sometimes, as the Gospel says about Zacchaeus, we think we are rich and we are poor. And it is only when we become aware of our poverty that we can find true joy in Christ. We think we are rich, but we are poor. And Zacchaeus knew he was poor, because he lacked the most important thing, which was not money, but the encounter with the Lord.
We cannot finish without talking about the Virgin of the Forsaken, an invocation so beloved in Valencia and that now takes so much meaning. What do you ask the Virgin?
-I ask that the people of Valencia recover the hope that perhaps many have lost. May they experience God's consolation in their hearts and may they always find that, even when they are helpless, they have a helping hand at their side, because works of mercy are works of hope. That is what I ask Our Lady at this time.
