Rebuild hearts as well as homes, pope tells quake victims

Pope Francis on Thursday met hundreds of survivors of three devastating earthquakes in central Italy that claimed 299 lives and razed entire villages to the ground. “The pain is great, and we must rebuild with that pain,’’ he told families who lost relatives, friends, homes and livelihoods in the deadly Aug. 24 quake. It was followed by two more powerful tremors at the end of October that caused no fatalities but reduced more communities to rubble. Pope Francis blesses a little girl during an audience with populations struck by the Italian earthquake at the Paul VI audience Hall on January 5, 2017 in Vatican. “Hearts are wounded, there’s no room for optimism here, but for hope. “We need hearts and hands to rebuild,’’ Francis said. The August quake occurred in the early morning, when most people were asleep indoors. Francis visited the mountain town of Amatrice which sustained the most fatalities and other stricken villages in the quake zone in October