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Pope meets Madeleine's parents
30/05/2007 13:34 - (SA)
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| Pope Benedict XVI blesses a photograph of missing Madeleine McCann as her parents Kate and Gerry (far right) look on. (L'Osservatore Romano, AP) |
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Rome - Pope Benedict XVI held the hands of the parents of four-year-old Madeleine McCann, blessing them and a photo of the little girl as they asked for prayers on Wednesday for their daughter who went missing while holidaying with her family in Portugal in early May.
The pope spoke a few words with the parents, each dressed in dark suits, as he greeted dignitaries seated in the front row during his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square.
The Vatican had readily accepted the British couple's request to meet with the pope, as they press their campaign to publicise their daughter's disappearance. Devout Catholics, they recently prayed at the pilgrimage site in Fatima, Portugal, for her safe return.
"Obviously we have very mixed emotions about being here, and of course why we are here," Gerry McCann said as he arrived in St Peter's Square.
"In normal circumstances it would be one of the most exciting things we could do in our own lifetimes, but very much on our minds is the fact that we are here without Madeleine."
Pope 'personally touched'
Earlier this week Vatican officials said that the McCann family would be among the dignitaries and other notables brought up to greet the pope at the end of his weekly audience with faithful in St Peter's Square.
A Vatican spokesperson, the Reverend Ciro Benedettini, said British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor had requested the meeting.
"We are talking about a family drama that has touched world public opinion. It could not but touch the Holy Father, especially since these people are Catholics," Benedettini said.
"The Holy Father is considered the father of all, therefore he was personally touched as a father," the spokesperson said.
Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3 when her parents left her and her two-year-old twin siblings alone in their hotel room while they went to a restaurant in their hotel complex in Praia da Luz, a resort town in Portugal's Algarve region. Gerry and Kate McCann have said they won't return to Britain without their daughter.
After the audience, the family planned to give a news conference at the residence of Britain's ambassador to the Holy See.
- AP
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