As emergency workers continue to sift through the rubble after the deadly earthquake and aftershocks of Feb. 6, an Italian bishop is calling for solidarity and prayers.

“Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in Turkey and Syria as they recover from two devastating earthquakes, one after the other,” Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice, Fla., said in a recent tweet. “The earthquakes are the worst to strike Turkey this century, and for Syrians, the damage took place in areas already ravaged by years of war.” 

A massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria the morning of Feb. 6, local time; Time reported. People as far away as Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and the Palestinian territories felt the earth shaking during the temblor. Just nine hours later, a quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck, causing even more devastation.

An earthquake that measures 7.0 or above can inflict significant damage, while earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or less can go unnoticed, Time said. Communities can be completely destroyed by earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or higher. The magnitude indicates a quake’s size and severity, but its depth—the shallower the quake, the more damaging—and proximity to populated areas significantly affect how much damage the temblor might inflict. 

As of Tuesday, the death total was over 41,000, a Reuters report said. 

The Catholic Church suffered at least one loss in the devastation. The body of Father Imad Daher, a priest from the Greek Melkite Catholic Parish of Our Lady, was discovered among the many fatalities, Catholic News Agency reported. The humanitarian organization Aid to the Church in Need reported that numerous towns and cities with sizable Christian populations—including Aleppo, Homs, Lattakia and Hama—sustained substantial damage. 

"Our local partners have an urgent need of support, especially in areas of northern Syria where hundreds of thousands of people live in simple refuges and now, with the earthquakes, are even more defenseless," Oliver Hochedez, head of the Malteser International emergency response department, said in a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) report. "In the hospitals run by our partner organizations the number of injured arriving increases hour by hour. We must provide help rapidly.”  

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state for the Vatican, sent telegrams to the Vatican's ambassadors in Turkey and Syria expressing Pope Francis' profound sadness over the "huge loss of life,” the USCCB report said.