Italy's Day Of Mourning For Quake Victims
Sobbing mourners, gazing on coffins adorned with mementos of the dead - a boy's toy motorcycle, a baby's blue T-shirt - comforted each other as they said farewell at a funeral mass for Italy's quake victims.
Friday was a national day of mourning in Italy for the nearly 300 people killed in Monday's massive earthquake.
In the quake zone today, a state funeral was held for more than 200 of the victims of all ages.
The Vatican gave special dispensation to hold the service on Good Friday, when mass is not usually celebrated.
It was held outdoors because church buildings are unstable.
In a message delivered at the exceptional Good Friday Mass, Pope Benedict XVI urged survivors of the devastating quake, Italy's worst in three decades, to keep up hope.
The 6.3-magnitude temblor - which killed 289 and left some 30,000 homeless - struck Monday at the start of Holy Week, heightening the sense of suffering in this deeply Roman Catholic country.
"This is the time to work together," the pope said in a message read by his secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein. "Only solidarity will allow us to overcome this painful trial."
Benedict, who noted that the quake was felt at the Vatican, is to travel to the region sometime after the Easter holiday.
"Today is a 'Via Crucis' for each of us," said Stefania Pezzopane, one of the top officials of this medieval city in central Italy. The "Via Crucis," or "Way of the Cross," is the procession held on Good Friday in commemoration of Jesus' suffering before crucifixion.
Weeping mourners in the front row bowed their heads, their shoulders moving up and down as they sobbed. A few traced their fingers on the caskets neatly lined up on the vast military ground in the quake-stricken city of L'Aquila. Others stared out blankly at the sea of flowers.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other key government officials were among the 10,000 people attending the outdoor ceremony beneath Abruzzo's snowcapped mountains.
Berlusconi comforted mourners, shaking hands and giving hugs before the ceremony began.
"Today will be a moment of great emotion. How can one not be moved by so much pain?" Berlusconi said, shortly before departing for L'Aquila for the funeral.
"These are our dead today, they are the dead of the whole nation," said the premier.
Volunteers guided grieving relatives to the caskets of their loved ones. Each of the simple varnished wooden coffins, graced with either a cross or a crucifix and with a bouquet of flowers, bore a golden plaque with the name of the deceased, the dates of their birth and death.(AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A woman grieved over a casket draped in soccer jerseys and holding the silver-framed photo of a smiling young man with thick blond hair.
Firefighters, rangers and other rescue workers stood solemnly, their hands clasped in front of them. Paramedics attended one mourner who collapsed.
Amid the rows of coffins, five small white caskets of the youngest victims rested on those of their parents. They held mementos of their short lives: a boy's toy motorcycle and a baby's powder blue T-shirt with a Tweetie Bird design.
Twenty children and teenagers were among the dead. The youngest victim would have turned 5 months on Easter Sunday.
The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, presided over the Good Friday funeral Mass for about 200 of the dead. Some of the 289 victims had already been buried privately.
Two more bodies were located in the rubble as officials prepared for the funeral.
An imam briefly took the stage to address the relatives of an unknown number of Muslim victims. He also offered encouragement to all the mourners, who quietly applauded when he finished speaking.
The quake struck Monday at 3:32 a.m., catching many in their sleep. It reduced entire blocks to piles of rubble. L'Aquila was among the hardest hit, but the quake damaged some 26 towns in the central mountainous region of Abruzzo.
On Thursday, L'Aquila took a halting step toward normalcy as butchers, bakers and other shopkeepers reopened for business and firefighters began entering buildings to grab essential items for the homeless.
Aftershocks, including some strong ones, continued to rattle residents - nearly 18,000 of whom are living in tent camps around the stricken region. An additional 10,000 have been put up in seaside hotels, out of the quake zone, and the Italian railway provided heated sleeping cars at L'Aquila's main train station, where nearly 700 people spent the night.
Firefighters surveyed for damage as far away as Rome, 60 miles west of the quake's epicenter.