As Typhoon Fung-wong is wreaking havoc in the Philippines, Pope Leo offered his prayers on Sunday after the midday Angelus.
I express my closeness to the people of the Philippines who have been hit by a violent typhoon: I pray for the deceased and their families, as well as for the injured and displaced.
The storm was already bringing rain and winds upon Luzon at about the same time (Manila is 7 hours ahead of Rome). Nearly one million people had been evacuated as the storm approached.
Already two people are confirmed dead from earlier landfalls.
Fung-wong is classified as a super typhoon with sustained winds around 185 km/h (115mph) and gusts of 230km/h (143mph). It is tracing a northwesterly path across Luzon, the Philippine's most populous island, where Manila is located.
Fung-wong - known locally as Uwan - comes just days after an earlier storm, Kalmaegi, left nearly 200 people dead.
