Pope Francis (Photo : Reuters)
While volunteering for Pope Francis's mass in the Philippines, a woman was killed due to stormy weather on Jan. 17, Saturday.
According to a church spokesman, the woman, 21, whose name was not disclosed, died after steel scaffolding crashed on to her.
Spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Palo Father Amadeo Alvero told reporters that scaffolding hit the woman in the chest and pinned her to the ground, which ended her life.
According to Alvero, the victim was one of many volunteers who helped at the mass the Pope had given at Tacloban airport. The police said about 200,000 people attended the mass amid heavy rain caused by Tropical Storm Mekkhala locally named Amang, ABS-CBN News reported.
Because of the storm, the Pope's trip to a central island in the Philippines was cut short. He specifically visited the island to meet with survivors of a catastrophic typhoon in 2013 that killed thousands in the area.
Four hours earlier than scheduled, the Pope was forced to fly back to the Philippines' capital Manila to avoid the worst of the storm. Each year, the country is hit by an average of 20 tropical storms or typhoons and Mekkhala is the first of 2015.
Prior to this, the Pope announced he plans to canonize 18th-century Spanish Franciscan priest Father Junípero Serra while traveling from Sri Lanka to the Philippines, Fox News reported.
The Pope is set to travel to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families in September, when he plans to canonize Serra, who he called "the evangelizer of the West in the United States."
It was Serra who founded the first Catholic missions in California.
