Pope Benedict XVI holds a photo of 4-year-old abducted British girl Madeleine McCann, after greeting her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, following his weekly general audience at the Vatican May 30.
Posted on 05/30/2007 1:30:51 PM PDT by NYer
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."
Throughout the press conference, Kate McCann kept close to her "Cuddle Cat," the worn pink and white stuffed cat that she said Madeleine insisted on having with her when she went to bed or when she was sad.
She said meeting the pope "was very emotional, but a very positive experience really. It was very important to us."
"He was very kind, very sincere. He said that he would pray for us and our family and for Madeleine's safe return to us," she said.
"I thanked him, first of all, for letting us meet him today and I thanked him for his prayers. It's been a lovely day. It has been a very positive experience; I think it can really make us stronger and lift us up more," she said.
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.
Gerry McCann told reporters May 30, "We have had tremendous strength from the outpouring of good will we have had from all over the world, but particularly from the local Catholic community in Portugal and from the church which we've been attending regularly.
"We know that many people both here and elsewhere are praying for our daughter and that helps us sustain our belief that we can get her back safely," he said.
"The Catholic faith has given us strength," he said, but the outpouring of concern and prayers "has restored my faith in humanity as much as anything else."
"We understand that there are many different scenarios here, but we must believe and we do believe that we can get Madeleine back," he said.
His wife said, "The first 72 hours (after the presumed abduction) were the worst times. It was very hard to get away from all the dark places, but as time goes on and after the support we have had and the prayers we have had everywhere, it really does give you strength and hope."
A week before traveling to the Vatican, the couple had gone to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal to pray for Madeleine's safe return and have launched a massive publicity campaign in Europe seeking help in finding their daughter.
Prayers for the safe return of Madeleine.
(Shaking head.)
>>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.<<
Yikes!
No baby sitter!
Man oh man, my prayers for this little girl and her family. People makes stupid mistakes. Sometimes it’s okay, sometimes bad things happen.
I just don’t understand this. My son, who is 7, just started Cub Scouts and I’m supposed to go over some issues of “personal safety” with him. I looked over that section of his Scout book last night. As I did so, it occurred to me that he is never without adult supervision. Never. We or his grandparents are around when he is at home, or he is in school, or he is playing with friends whose parents we know and trust. I would never leave him alone in a hotel room —or any place else —while my wife and I went to dinner. I can’t even imagine what thought processes led these kids’ parents to do this. I feel bad for them; I feel worse for the little girl — but what a completely avoidable situation this was.
Check this out. This is from the hotel where they were staying..... per Crimeblog.us
UPDATE 2:45pm GMT: The apartment the McCanns were staying in was on the ground floor, and was within sight of the restaurant the parents were dining at. I don’t particularly want to indulge in recriminations against the parents (pictured), as I believe they must be going through absolute hell right now and the emphasis should be on finding Madeleine, but having said that I couldn’t help but notice this on the Mark Warner website:
Childcare
Mark Warner’s superb childcare facilities for all ages from four months upwards are available and a unique service on offer at the Ocean Club is our ‘Dine Out’ option. As accommodations are spread throughout the village, we offer to keep an eye on the little ones while you go out to eat - just drop them at our kids club, ready for bed and pick them up when you’ve finished.
The resort is tailored to meet the needs of families and it does seem strange, if this option was on offer, that the McCanns chose not to take advantage of it.
One of the most extensive articles so far is this one from This Is London. It states that Kate and Gerry McCann felt let down by the local police, who they felt had done nothing during the night to find their daughter.
Absolutelty. It has very much angered me. They had tried to make excuses for their error. i.e. that the restaurant was very close, and that friends were checking in but the bottom line is, they screwed up big.
That said, they come across as very decent people, very religious and just wanting to get their daughter back. It was a very special and emotional moment.
Thank you for that information. I confess that I have not followed this story and am totally ignorant of what transpired. If this happened in Portugal, then it is precariously close to North Africa which is notorious for human trafficking. That makes the picture even worse.
I will NEVER forget the events surrounding the disappearance of a Kindergartener in Manhattan named Etan Patz. The family lived in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan and the mom watched him leave for school like he did every day. Except that day, he never arrived.
This story made national headlines nearly 30 years ago. And, to this day, Etan Patz has never materialized. He simply vanished from the streets of NYC, never to be seen again. What a frightening and totally frustrating experience for any parent!
My prayers added to a safe return of little Madeleine and prayers for her parents. The guilt over this situation must be a very heavy load on their hearts.
I saw this story on the cover of “People” magazine when I was at Wal-mart last week, and figured it wouldn’t have made the cover if it were the usual, non-custodial parent, kidnapping.
Poor little girl.
I’ll be praying for her and her parents. Unfortunately, sometimes you do something foolish and it leads to disaster. (Left two 2-year-olds and a 4-year-old unsupervised? Even if they were all asleep when the parents left, the potential for disaster just in the room is chilling.)
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