Norcia Monks' Basilica Destroyed

(Photo: European Pressphoto Agency)

I previously wrote here, here, and here about the Benedictine monks of Norcia, Italy who brought chant back to their monastery after 200 years and released a Marian chant album. Today, however, brings the sad news that their San Benedetto basilica was destroyed by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake, two months after other tremors shook Italy and killed 300 people. Mercifully, no deaths have been reported from today's quake, and the monks are all safe and accounted for.

Fr. Francisco Nahoe had just led a pilgrimage to Italy only a couple weeks before and is still there now. He submitted this report from Rome:

As Gwen Linde, who was on that pilgrimage, put it, "That is sooooo Fr. Francisco, praying 'in this earthly vale of tears.' The rest of us would be screaming 'what the !!!!!!'" (H/T: Former Cathedral Friar Fr. Masseo Gonzales)