Legacy Matters

Prayers for the countless dead in China's earthquake

The Chinese earthquake in Sichuan province was so huge in its impact, in the numbers of dead, in the tragedy of the schoolchildren crushed in their schools, in the grief of parents losing the one child they were allowed, that I've been unable to get my mind around it.

"One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic, " Joseph Stalin said.  What can we make of the latest statistics from the Chinese government. 

62,664 dead
23,775 missing
358,816 injured
638,305 rescued and evacuated

Or these
5 million were left homeless
Floods now threaten the 700,000 survivors
69 dams are now in danger of bursting.

When I saw this photo of family members searching for their missing, I began to feel for the agony of numbers beyond measure.

Many victims were buried quickly in mass burial pits and China's Rush to Dispose of Dead Compounds Agony.

They are unknown people being quickly cremated or buried in unmarked graves, and there are thousands or tens of thousands of them across quake-ravaged Sichuan Province. It may be months or years before family members discover their fate, if they ever do. They are very likely to be among the nearly 25,000 people the Chinese government classifies as missing in the aftermath of the May 12 earthquake

President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao have urged rescue workers to save lives “at any cost.” But the scale of the disaster has forced the government to dispose of the dead with little ceremony, closing the door on any opportunity family members have of identifying their kin by sight and upsetting the traditional Chinese reverence for the deceased.

This photo broke my heart.  Tiny Bodies in a Morgue

Yesterday was designated World Day of Prayer for China by the Pope who composed a prayer for Our Lady of Sheshan.