MADRID, Spain, March 18 (CNA) - In response to an urgent call for help from Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela of Madrid, hundreds of priests and religious rushed to the scene of last week’s terrorist attacks in Madrid in order to help and console victims of the bombings.

"I remember an 18 year-old young man.  He was with his friend.  He no longer has a family.  His father died 8 years ago and he was living alone with his mother. On the 11^th, she had the day off and decided to go shopping in Madrid.  At the Atocha station she was met with death.  He told me, ‘I’m all alone now. I only have my friends.’  I told him, ‘And you have a priest, too, who also loves you and prays for your mother.’  I gave him my address," said Fr. Angel Camino of the Parish of San Manuel and San Benito.

"And this is perhaps the most tragic," continues Fr. Camino.  "Maria de la Soledad was seated next to one of the backpacks filled with explosives.  She was identified by her fingerprints. She was totally blown to pieces, her sister tells me.  What a coincidence!  Her children were baptized in my parish and her funeral will be here at the express wishes of her husband and parents.  All I have done is listen and listen, offer consolation and be present through these small acts of love.  The reward has been infinitely greater.  I haven’t been turned away by hardly anyone.  Quite the contrary.  What a lesson of how love pain can be turned into love, of suffering offered up."

Fr. Santiago Martín was present at the make-shift morgue set up to hold the bodies of those slain.  "It is very hard to describe the scene.  I have had a hard time sleeping, my chest is hurting and I am nervous.   The bodies were on the floor in white and black plastic bags, lined up like soldiers going to receive a medal:  the one God was going to give them in Heaven."

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"After I finished praying for the repose of their souls, I knelt down and found it very difficult not to weep.  Even now tears well up in my eyes.  Later we went to where more of the deceased were being held, according to the areas in which the victims were killed, blessing those bodies that were deprived of life."

Soon after receiving word of the Archbishop’s request, Jesuit Fr. Alberto Lopez, 81, went to one of the places where victims were being treated.  "I remember speaking with a grieving young man, his eyes red from so many tears.  The remains of his pregnant wife of just three years had just been identified.  I was speechless, like a blank page," he said.

"I was so moved by that young man who had lost his wife in the attacks," said Fr. Juan Carlos Garcia.  "Although they advised him not to lift up the sheet that covered the body of his wife, he did so and broke down in tears and anger.  It was very difficult," the priest said.

"I was moved and I approached him and asked if he wanted to pray the Our Father for his wife.  He tearfully agreed, and we prayed as our voices trembled.  I hugged him as we said goodbye and gave him my blessing.  Since then I have remembered him in all my Masses, that the Lord might console him, bless him and protect him," he concluded.

Chaplains at the hospitals were the wounded were treated worked tirelessly to offer their assistance.  Fr. Jesus Herrero, chaplain of the Gregorio Marañon Hospital, recalled that he visited "an Ecuadorian who was under heavy sedation. When I told him I was the chaplain, he opened his eyes with joy and said, ‘Father, we must thank God for those who have survived and pray for those who didn’t.’ The strength of those wounded is remarkable."

Fr. Fructuoso, chaplain at La Paz Hospital, said that "some of those wounded asked to go to confession and they and their family members were thankful for the spiritual assistance.  I concentrated on helping family members who came in search of their children."

3-11: “I offer my heartfelt forgiveness to the terrorists and I pray God touches their hearts”

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Spain on 3/11, which left more than 200 dead 1,500 wounded, dozens of anonymous victims, as wells as many of those who helped in the rescue efforts, have shared their testimonies of sincere forgiveness and mercy towards the terrorists and their comfort for those affected by the tragedy.

Amparo Buchón, who lost her two stepdaughters in the attacks, offered a moving testimony of faith in God and forgiveness towards the perpetrators of the attacks.  “The Lord gave them to me and He has taken them away.  We must accept His will.  I feel so powerless because I can’t understand how someone could be capable of doing such harm.  Nevertheless, my faith has sustained me and now it gives me strength to accept the situation with resignation and to forgive those who caused such pain and suffering.  I offer them my heartfelt forgiveness and I pray God will touch their hearts.

Carmen Rubio, a nurse at La Paz Hospital, where victims were treated, shared the testimony of a Romanian who was injured in the attacks:  “I was saved thanks to God.”

“I was on the verge of death and I had a book with me.  As there was a lot of people I decided to move to another seat and that saved me life,” he said.  Asked about the book he was reading, he replied it was “a Christian book.”

Rubio said these deaths “can only be forgiven by the grace of God, because otherwise it is impossible.”  “John Paul II is an example of this for us.  He suffered an attempt on his life and he went to prison to visit the man responsible, who hugged him and asked for forgiveness,” she said.

Julio Lorenzo, a forensic doctor, revealed that while helping those injured during the attacks, he found his greatest comfort in God.  “I could sense His presence in the solidarity of the people who were there.  When we do not understand the mystery of evil, man cannot help but look to the One who knows the answer, the One who can do all things and can bring comfort.”

“Our tears are in a large part due to the emotional recognition of the presence of God in solidarity, they are tears of emotion upon feeling the presence of God among us, united together in suffering,” said Lorenzo, adding that “we must thank God for having shown us once again, that good overcomes evil.”

Maria Pilar, who lost her young son, wrote a letter in which she stated that “despite all of the pain in our hearts, we are experiencing the tenderness of God through countless people who weep with us.”  She asked for prayers, “not for my son, who is now with the Father, but for the assassins and those who carried out this act, that they might someday find the love they need to heal their evil.”

“Before his remains we have promised we will work to achieve, no matter how insignificantly, the end of this plague.  We who love outnumber them.  Can they overcome that?” she asked.

Catholic News Agency/ ACIprensa; published with permission of ACI