Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI clasped the hands of the parents of Madeleine McCann and blessed a photo of the missing 4-year-old, telling them Wednesday that he would pray for the safe return of the child, who disappeared a month ago in Portugal.
Kate and Gerry McCann, Roman Catholics from Britain, said the pope’s words and blessings would sustain them as they press their campaign to find Madeleine and bring her home.
“His touch and thoughts and words were more tender than we could have hoped, and that will sustain us during this most difficult time,” Gerry McCann said.
The brief meeting came at the end of Benedict’s weekly general audience. The McCanns had a front-row seat – arranged after British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor wrote the Vatican on their behalf.
The girl disappeared May 3 when she and her 2-year-old twin siblings were left alone in their hotel room while their parents went to a restaurant in the hotel complex in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.
