Almost half a thousand people have gathered this Sunday in the parish of Correà (Berguedà) in a mass organized by the bishopric of Solsona (Lleida) to ask the Virgen dels Torrents that it rain in the pre-Pyrenean region, heavily affected by the drought.
The bishopric of Solsona (Lleida) has organized the mass at the request of a group of parish residents, which extends through the municipalities of Montmajor and l’Espunyola.
The drought that is affecting Catalonia has caused serious difficulties in the region’s agricultural and livestock sectors, and today’s was the first procession of its kind to be held in the autonomous community so far this year.
The participants who have been able to enter the small parish have followed the mass with devotion and, once outside, have accompanied the image of the Virgin, carried on the shoulders of two parishioners, in a pilgrimage to ask for rain.
Teresa Cases, one of those attending the event, told Efe: “Let’s see if the Lord listens to us and it rains, because water is life.”
For his part, the councilor of the City Council of l’Espunyola Eduard Perarnau (PdR-AM) explained that the mass and the procession were requested by a group of neighbors who proposed it to the bishopric of Solsona, on which the parish depends, as already it had traditionally been done in other drought episodes.
“Many neighbors live from the countryside and agro-tourism and the drought affects everyone in the end because if this (the environment) is not green, people are not going to come either,” he considered.