Two priests describe helping at the scene of Spain's Urda train crash

Two priests of the Archdiocese of Toledo went to the scene of Wednesday's train collision near Urda, in central Spain. One of them gave general absolution, which canon law provides for in disasters, without prior individual confession, under canon 961 of the Code of Canon Law.

A train operated by Renfe, Spain's state rail company, was traveling at 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph) when it struck the rear cars of a train run by the private operator Iryo. The collision happened at kilometer 118 of the Madrid-Seville line, near Urda, on Wednesday morning. At least 69 people were killed and dozens injured, several of them critically.

General absolution at the crash site

Father Fernando Fernández de Bobadilla, 71, pastor of Los Yébenes, was on his way to a health center for a routine appointment when a friend called to tell him what had happened. He turned around at once and was among the first to reach the site, arriving ahead of much of the emergency response. He found people wandering in shock, seriously injured passengers lying on the ground and bodies in the open.

Unable to attend to each dying person individually, he gave general absolution. The theology of the sacrament of penance provides for it in disasters, without prior individual confession, and it rests on canon 961 of the Code of Canon Law. "I gave general absolution. The Vatican recommends it in these cases," he said. He also said the anointing of the sick could not be given individually to all the seriously injured.

Fernández de Bobadilla said it was the only thing he could offer at that moment: spiritually preparing those who faced the possibility of dying. "I did what I felt I could do at that moment and what no one else could do: forgive their sins and prepare them in case the Lord called them to heaven," he said. Besides administering the sacraments, he walked the site and went up to each injured person, taking their hand, asking how they were and where it hurt, and introducing himself as a priest ready to pray for them. To a young American woman he said, in basic English, "I pray for you," and she answered with a smile. He also helped the rescue teams, holding IV bags, supporting the heads of the injured and helping carry them on improvised stretchers. As bodies were pulled from the cars, he kept praying for the dead. He left the site around 2 p.m., once the injured had been evacuated and firefighters confirmed that heavy machinery would be needed to move the cars.

The priest said that when words fall short and reasoning is useless, what remains is physical closeness and listening. He added that even if he could not reach an injured person's heart, God could: "My role as an intermediary may be simple and apparently useless, but God knows how to make use of the cracks."

Support and comfort at the scene

Father José Miguel Fernández, pastor of Urda, received a call from the archbishop of Toledo, Francisco Cerro Chaves, who told him the scale of the disaster. He went immediately and arrived around 11 a.m., two hours after the collision, when dozens of volunteers, many of them his own parishioners, had already set up an improvised relief chain. Residents of Urda were driving the injured into town in their own cars so they could receive medical care.

The first thing he saw was a long line of badly injured people coming out of the train cars. "These are moments that, humanly speaking, break your heart, but very quickly our mind turns to God and we look to heaven," he told Nicolás de Cárdenas, correspondent for EWTN News Español.

Fernández said he particularly remembered one injured man who came up to him and said: "Father, give me a hug, I'm alive." That encounter set the tone for the rest of the morning. The priest decided that this was how he would be present that day: giving hugs, holding hands and staying with people who could not take in what had just happened to them. He later went to the municipal sports hall in Urda, set up as a field hospital, where desperate relatives were waiting for news.

He tried to offer them calm and hope. "What matters is hope. Have hope. Trust in God, because God is good," he told them. Fernández said he often ended up weeping alongside the people he was with. "We are priests, of course, but we are human, and the pain and grief of our brothers and sisters affects us too," he said.

The archbishop and the response from Rome

Cerro was at the crash site with other priests, who prayed for the dead as their bodies were recovered. Fernández de Bobadilla praised the coordination between the different emergency services deployed in the area.

Pope Leo XIV expressed his deep sorrow at the disaster. In a telegram signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, the pope said he was praying for the eternal rest of the dead and sent his condolences to the victims' families. He also sent words of encouragement and wished the injured a swift recovery. The message, addressed to Cerro, acknowledged the work of the rescue teams, whom the pope encouraged to persevere in their relief efforts. He gave his apostolic blessing to all those affected as a "sign of hope in the risen Lord." The Spanish Bishops' Conference, Spain's counterpart of the USCCB, along with many bishops and dioceses, also expressed dismay and condolences over the rail disaster.