Papal telegram for Spanish earthquake victims
May 16, 2011
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, has offered condolences in the name of Pope Benedict to the families of the victims of the May 11 earthquake in the southeastern Spanish city of Lorca. Nine people were killed and 293 were injured in Spain’s worst earthquake since 1956.
“The Holy Father expresses particular closeness to those affected, offering suffrages for the eternal repose of the deceased and asking the Almighty to grant comfort and Christian hope” to the suffering, Cardinal Bertone said in the telegram to Bishop José Manuel Lorca Planes.
The bishop offered an outdoor funeral Mass on May 13 because the city’s churches were too unsafe to enter. Among those attending the Mass, which was broadcast live on Spanish television, were Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia, and Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
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Further information:
- Telegramma del Santo Padre (Holy See)
- Spain mourns victims of Lorca earthquake with public mass (The Telegraph)
- 2011 Lorca earthquake (Wikipedia)
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