A Catholic chaplain who ministered to victims of London's Underground explosions said he comforted many people who appeared to be in shock.
"It's traumatic to see something like that happening, when there is just a blatant disregard for human life," said Father Duncan Adamson, a chaplain at nearby St. Mary's Hospital, where many of the wounded were taken for treatment July 7. "It's not worth it to describe how awful it is."
Father Adamson, pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church, London, said July 8 that he was escorted by police to the Hilton Metropole Hotel. As part of rehearsed procedures for a terrorist attack, emergency officials converted a section of the hotel into a makeshift assessment center for people wounded by the bomb on the Underground train near the Edgware Road station.
The priest said he spent more than an hour offering whatever help he could to the victims of the blast, described as the worst attack on the British capital since World War II.
"Basically speaking, a lot of people were quite shocked," said Father Adamson.
"I was able to talk to them and comfort them," he said, adding that he also prayed with some passengers. He said about 30 people with relatively minor injuries --- "the walking wounded" --- were taken to the hotel for assessment.
The Edgware Road blast was one of four explosions that claimed more than 50 lives and left more than 700 injured. Three trains carrying more than 2,000 passengers were affected by the blast.
"There was quite a loud explosion a couple of carriages up from where I was," passenger Ben McCarthy told reporters.
"The carriages filled with smoke," McCarthy said. "At that stage somebody, a man I think, was blown out of the door of the train. He was under the carriages. Everything was black and filled with smoke for a while. It was terrifying. People were incredibly calm but very, very shocked."
Another London priest who lives near one of the four bombing sites said he stayed away from the scene at the direction of emergency personnel.
"The image of emergency services wanting priests at the scene has finished," said Father Peter Newby of St. Mary Moorfield Parish. "They don't want priests there."
The parish is situated in London's financial district, which was targeted by the bombers.
Father Newby told Catholic News Service that his church was just "a couple of hundred yards" from one of the blasts, but he did not go to the scene because emergency services wanted everyone evacuated. He said that within hours stillness had descended on his section of London, which was normally bustling with people.
Father Newby said he celebrated two Masses at lunchtime and the mood was "solemn and somber," but he said no one approached him for any counseling or advice.
"When you see the news you think it's massive razzmatazz and chaos, but it's not around here," he added.
Father Kit Cunningham, parish priest of St. Etheldreda Church in central London, told The Catholic Times weekly newspaper in Manchester that the terror experienced by Londoners in the city's recent history, a reference to bombings carried out by the Irish Republican Army in the 1970s and 1980s, was helping city residents deal with the explosions.
"There is a tremendous stoicism among Londoners, and they want to carry on to show they're not depleted," he said. ---CNS |