We share this statement from br. Manuel Corullón Fernández, who recounts his experience of helping the victims of the Marrakech earthquake.
On the 8th September, 2023, as the Catholic Church was concluding the festive celebrations of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whereupon, the earth literally shook! this time in the Marrakech region, 85 km south of the tourist capital of the Alawite Kingdom.
Saint Francis of Assisi sang to the earth, calling it mother and sister, because it supports us and in a certain sense governs our destinies and provides us with everything we need. Pope Francis, echoing St. Francis' Canticle of the Creatures, reminded us that the earth suffers trembles and roars.
Beyond all predictions, and without any kind of warning, just before midnight the earth shook. In the city of Marrakech, many houses in the Melah district, the oldest in the Medina, the old city, collapsed like a house of cards, while other more robust and modern buildings resisted the shock, which left its mark with cracks and visible damage. The friary and the church of the Franciscan Martyrs of Marrakech, the parish church, resisted the shock with some damage that time will give us the opportunity to repair; the cross of the church remained propped up as if it were looking with veneration and respect at the victims of the earthquake.
After the initial disturbance, I called together all the social pastoral workers of our parish community in Marrakech and, in a first emergency meeting attended by Christians and Muslims, the answer was clear: let's act! We immediately activated an emergency protocol between all the active forces of the parish, friends, collaborators, former members of the parish community and all those who sent messages of solidarity to each other.
On Monday the 11th September we organized the first humanitarian convoy to the Lower Atlas Mountains. We went up with four vehicles loaded with basic necessities, food, clothes, toiletries and personal hygiene products, tents, electric generators... The road up the mountain was really sad to see, the destruction gradually increased as we approached the epicentre of the earthquake that hit the entire region on the Marrakech-Taroudant axis. We arrived in the first village that was waiting for us to arrive and thanks to some contacts from members of our parish community, we had time to stop, to listen, to share, to accompany some sick people to the field hospital, and we were able to help to set up some tents .
Caritas of Marrakech, as the social pastoral arm of our parish community, has never stopped being fully active, receiving donations of all kinds, making contacts with various associations of Moroccan civil society, sending aid to orphanages, to isolated villages where only the Army helicopters could arrive, processing humanitarian emergency projects for various international organizations, managing volunteers, sorting donations and preparing the humanitarian convoys that ascend the mountains every two days.
In the midst of this humanitarian emergency, it is worth remembering the emergency situation in which our sub-Saharan migrant brothers and sisters have found themselves, adding poverty to the misery in which they already live. The fact that they were housed in the cheapest and therefore oldest neighbourhoods and houses, many were left on the streets and we spent three days trying to relocate them all.
In the midst of this situation I have learned, or rather, I can say that I am learning three important things: the great solidarity of the Moroccan people who are giving us a great lesson in brotherhood in the face of the very common coldness of our indifference; the love of many people in our parish community for Morocco and its people, who put their time and resources at the service of everyone with admirable generosity; the Islamic-Christian interreligious dialogue that we are experiencing and feeling through compassion.
In recent days a Moroccan friend told me: "If I have a crust of bread and you don't have any, between the two of us we have half a crust of bread each; what we have, we receive to share".
Br Manuel Corullón Fernández, ofm
Parish Priest of Marrakech
President of Caritas Marrakech
24th September, 2023
