Ascoli, August 23, 2026 – Pope Leo XIV, after the super marathon of yesterday’s visit to San Marino and Rimini, wanted to pray – during today’s Angelus – for the victims of the earthquake in central Italy that occurred ten years ago and caused over 300 deaths.
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The Pontiff, at the end of the celebration in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, looking out from the window of the Apostolic Palace, recalled that tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of the earthquake that struck Central Italy between Lazio, Umbria, and Marche.
“I pray for the deceased and their families and for all the communities involved,” said the Pontiff. “May faith and solidarity continue to support the reconstruction efforts,” he added.
The program: Zuppi in Arquata and Prime Minister Meloni in Amatrice
Meanwhile, tomorrow, for the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, there is a long series of events. A mass at 11 in Arquata del Tronto, in the province of Ascoli, officiated by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will open the celebrations for the tenth anniversary of the Central Italy earthquake.
The day’s program was confirmed at the Rimini Meeting by Guido Castelli, extraordinary commissioner for post-earthquake reconstruction.
At 4:30 pm, the arrival in Amatrice of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (as announced by Palazzo Chigi), ministers Musumeci and Mazzi, and representatives of the regional authorities of the area is expected; at 5 pm, the laying of a wreath.
At 8 pm, Castelli announced, “there will be something very beautiful: a Requiem performed by the Krems orchestra,” an Austrian town that “since 2017 has never failed to be present every summer with musical orientation courses for the youth of Accumoli, occasions that demonstrate enormous and extraordinary solidarity.”
The open letter to the Prime Minister
Just today, in an article published in Carlino, Patrizia Marano, president of the association of victims’ families ‘I stand with Pescara del Tronto’, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to visit those places 10 years later.
That woman lost her entire family in a few seconds on August 24, 2016. Under the rubble of Pescara del Tronto remained her husband Alberto, her son Tommaso, just 14 years old, her parents, and her brother-in-law. She survived after being buried for many hours.
