By: Margaret Brown
HAVING HAD the boot of our car searched by the GNR, we entered Praia de Luz last Sunday sad at heart.The town was sombre, the people downcast and deeply troubled that a little girl three years of age had been snatched from her bed.
Madeleine McCann has been missing for six days at the time of writing, too long for a toddler to be alone with a stranger and a lifetime of distress for her loving parents.
Being practising Christians ,they have the faith and the love and the hope which are the bulwarks of God’s house: this they found at Mass in the town’s heart – the Igreja da Senhora da Luz. St. Vincent’s Anglican Church followed shortly afterward with a weekly Eucharistic service at the same Church.
The media was there in force mingling, questioning and humping their cameras among the congregation.
We had come to pray that the child would return safely, her family find comfort and never lose hope: and some to weep.
While the police presence has seemed thin on the ground, one must accept they have a different way of going about their business.
As the local Mayor put it: “In Portugal, we say ‘Hope is the last thing to lose’”.
