FAST DOWNLOAD
Nearly a hundred people, including volunteers who have accompanied regular parishioners, attended the first Sunday mass at the church of San Jorge Mártir in Paiporta (Valencia) this afternoon after the flood . “Everything passes and this too will pass,” said Don David, as this priest is known in the neighborhood, to EFE.
He is the regular parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception , who is currently working two hours a day due to the occasional absence of Don Gustavo, he tells us, on a trip for a major reason, but who has proposed from a distance that the recumbent Christ, covered in mud, be left like this so as “not to forget what has happened” in this parish, the oldest and most important of the three in the town, where between 50 and 60 deaths have been counted after the tragedy of last October 29.
Religious services resumed last Thursday in the town, one of the most affected by the flood, and are attended by “more people than usual” who, along with prayers for the victims and those affected, seek “a little faith and hope to get out of this hole.”
“Sometimes these misfortunes happen, but the Lord does not stop sending his gifts and we have had a lot of help from many people. He does not abandon us or leave us alone, but is at our side,” reflects Don David.
He says that human beings “have a very good side” and that in these types of situations “there are people who bring out the best in them” in the form of helping others, although he warns: “There are many people who are very hurt inside.”
“There is a lot of damage and many wounds, and we are here to comfort them and give them all the spiritual help they need,” said the priest, who explained that volunteers also come to pray with the parishioners “to strengthen them in all the work they are doing.”
Before starting the ceremony and after hearing the confessions of two people, Don David explains that he senses “a clear depression” and that people are “very tense,” so he encourages them to remember that “everything is temporary.” “Everything passes and this will pass, the church will be rebuilt and we will start again,” he says.
“After mass I feel more relaxed”
At the church door, located on the same street as the town hall, a volunteer with a water gun helps clean the boots of the attendees before entering the temple, where Belén, a parishioner, is busy cleaning the nooks and crannies of the ‘Monument’ with a toothbrush.
“This is where we place the Tabernacle from Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday,” she explains as she wipes a cloth trying to remove the mud from this golden pillar and before indicating that for her, going to church, and more so in this situation, is “a habit that if I don’t do it, it feels like I’m missing something, and then I go home more calmly,” she says.
She adds that, since she comes, she always takes “work home.” “You have to wash the chasubles, the capes… Everything that was there you put it like this and it stays upright, it’s stiff with mud,” she says with gestures, so they divide it up among several neighbors who take care of it in their homes.
Belén is emotional when she talks about what happened and says that she prays for those affected. “I live in a second and I haven’t lost my house, but there isn’t even a single ground floor left alive, it’s the whole town,” where shops, clinics and all kinds of businesses have disappeared.
A familiar face at this church is that of Paco, who since he retired six years ago has dedicated himself to the maintenance of the temple, “restoring, painting, making drawings or pieces of wood” that have been seriously damaged by the passage of water.
“The flood was like being beaten and left to fend for themselves,” he told EFE before explaining that the parish “held on until one of the old locks on one of the doors burst and the water started coming in and moving everything.”
With a height of 2.20 metres, the water reached all the images located in the lower area, such as ‘the muddy Christ’ which they want to preserve as is, although the marble floor, renovated a couple of years ago, has not been too damaged except for some plates that have been torn off.
“We will do everything little by little,” says Paco, who admits, however, that machinery would be needed to carry out some of the tasks and hopes to be able to rebuild everything. “I always trust in the Lord, although I find it difficult to see things as they were before,” he laments.
