Pope Leo XIV: Audience appeals for Colombian flood victims, sick & suffering worldwide, European unity

ROME – Pope Leo XIV prayed on Wednesday for victims of severe flooding in Colombia, urging prayerful and practical solidarity with all those affected.

In Spanish-language remarks to pilgrims and tourists present in the Paul VI Hall for his weekly General Audience on Wednesday morning, the pontiff said he commends “the victims and all those affected by the severe floods in Colombia.”

“I also commend and I urge the entire community to support the affected families with charity and prayer,” Leo said.

A sustained bout of unusually heavy rainfall experts attribute to the effects of the same cold front that has kept North America in a freeze has killed at least 22 people in Colombia’s northern cattle-raising region and left thousands of families displaced.

Local officials in the Cordoba and Sucre departments of Colombia have said more than 9,000 homes have been affected, while figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs put the number of families affected at 27,000.

Colombia’s national weather agency has said rainfall in the country was 64 percent above average for the month of January.

Local officials also say they believe more than 5,500 head of livestock have been affected and that many of them have been lost.

A Feb. 10 report from Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted local residents as saying the situation is “critical” and still developing.

“Many animals were lost, as they ended up drowning,” Lorica resident Edwin Orozco told AFP. “What’s coming looks pretty serious,” he also said.

In his Spanish-language remarks, Pope Leo also offered greetings to people in his former diocese of Chiclayo, Perú, who were among the faithful around the world marking World Day of the Sick on Wednesday – February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes – which the pontiff also marked by lighting a candle and offering a prayer at the beginning of his General Audience.

“I join spiritually with all those gathered today in Chiclayo, Perú, to solemnly celebrate the World Day of the Sick,” Leo said, “and I entrust everyone, especially the sick and their families, to the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

“Under her protection,” he said, “May God bless you.”

In other remarks during the General Audience on Wednesday, Leo looked forward to the February 14 commemoration of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the ninth century Byzantine brothers who became apostles to the Slavic peoples and are venerated with intense devotion in both East and West and are recognized as co-patrons of Europe.

“In these days,” Leo told Polish-speaking pilgrims, “we remember Saints Cyril and Methodius, Apostles of the Slavs and patrons of Europe, fathers of Christianity, of the language and culture of the Slavic peoples.”

“We return to their apostolic work,” Leo said, “as Saint John Paul II urged, in building a new unity on the European continent, to overcome tensions, divisions, and religious and political antagonisms.”

*Crux Senior Correspondent Elise Allen contributed to this report