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( Luis Forra/EPA)
Portuguese police on scrubland that will be
searched today for evidence that Madeleine
McCann is buried there |
The parents of Madeleine McCann have talked for the
first time about the prospect of never seeing their
daughter again as the search for a possible burial site
was called off by Portuguese police yesterday.
The couple said they were relieved that the police had
failed to find any trace of their daughter during the
search of remote scrubland about nine miles from where
she was abducted from her bed 43 days ago.
Mr and Mrs McCann, who have drawn heavily on their
Catholic faith since their daughter’s abduction, said
that although they were convinced Madeleine, 4, was
still alive, they had considered what would happen if
she were not returned home.
Gerry McCann,
39, said: “If we don’t get Madeleine back alive and
well, I am sure our faith will be severely tested. At
the end of it, we will still
have our faith and we will also have comfort that
Madeleine will be looked after.
“We
haven’t dwelt on that, but I think that is what we will
be left with. Our friends, our family, the Church have
really rallied round. I think that’s the key thing for
me,” he told The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper.
His wife Kate, a 38-year-old locum GP, said: “I have
considered that as well and I have felt guilty asking,
‘Will this make or break my faith?’. And yet, at the
same time you could argue that what’s happened in the
first place could make or break your faith, and it
hasn’t. It’s done the opposite. It has given us hope and
strength.”
Mr McCann said that in the first few days they had
feared that Madeleine, 4, was dead, until the arrival of
two trauma specialists, Alan Pike and Martin Alderton,
from the Centre for Crisis Psychology in Skipton,
North Yorkshire.
“We couldn’t get out of our heads that she was likely to
be dead, and we were truly, truly grieving,” Mr McCann
said.
“But then the psychologist said: ‘Is there any other
possibility?’ And then he started channelling
negatives and saying: ‘Of course there are other
possibilities.’ And we started to see that.”
The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have regularly
attended the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz (Our Lady of Light)
in Praia da Luz for Mass and have been given the keys to
the building to pray privately in the evenings. Mr
McCann, whose faith had lapsed for a time when he was in
his twenties, told The Tablet about an experience he had
while praying in the church during the days after
Madeleine disappeared.
“When I was praying, I started thinking of all the
things that were happening. There were lots of ideas in
my head of how we could make things better and I was
really feeling very down and not sure which way to
proceed,” said Mr McCann.
“I had this mental image of being in a tunnel and
instead of the light at the end of the tunnel being
extremely narrow and a distant spot, the light opened up
and the tunnel got wider and wider and went in many
different directions.
“I talked to you [Kate] about it and said, ‘I am not
prepared to pursue one path. We are going to do
everything in our power to influence things’. It was
almost like something — I am not saying it was the Holy
Spirit — came into me and gave me that image. That is
when I really felt I had a clear path.”
The couple have led a campaign to find their daughter
that has included meeting Pope Benedict XVI and trips to
Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam and Rabat to promote the
international search for Madeleine.
Meanwhile, the police have been forced to follow a
series of false leads across the world, including the
latest tip-off from the
Netherlands.
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