Did God Decide to Save a Statue and Let his Own Children die?

As rescue operations continue almost 200hours after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday last week, a statue of the Virgin Mary remained untouched after the collapse of the Catholic cathedral of Annunciation in Iskenderun in the city of Alexandretta, province of Hatay, Turkey.

The statue of the Blessed Virgin remained untouched despite the demolished cathedral church which is said to have been in existence for 152 years; the main church of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia.

According to the Turkish Jesuit priest Antuan Ilgit they had on Sunday congregated and celebrated mass in the Cathedral of Annunciation hours earlier before the earthquake that brought it down and other several buildings while destroying most buildings across the most hit areas by the earthquake.

In his Facebook post Antuan hopes that a time will come when the church can be rebuilt and further noted, “I bought the image of the Virgin Mary from the Cathedral, this image will be our strength and with her will face everything.”

Experts have attributed poor construction that has played a major role in the latest disaster despite stricter regulations promised two decades ago after a previous quake.

More than 100 arrest warrants have now been issued by Turkish Authorities over collapsed, destroyed and seriously damaged buildings with at least 12 people already in custody, including contractors, architects and engineers.

This comes amid warnings that the death toll from last week’s earthquake that struck parts of Turkey and Syria could double from the current tally of 33,000.