Pope Francis: prayers for victims of Quebec train derailment

July 10, 2013

Pope Francis offered prayers for victims of a Quebec train derailment that led to the explosion of several oil tank cars, leaving at least 15 dead.

“Upon learning of the tragic train derailment at Lac-Mégantic, with its many victims of whom a large number is still unaccounted for, His Holiness Pope Francis unites himself through prayer in the anguish of the grieving families, and he entrusts the victims to the mercy of God, asking Him to welcome them into His light,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, in a message to the people of the town of 6,000.

“He expresses his deep sympathy to the injured persons and their families, to the emergency workers, and to all the people around them, asking the Lord to support and comfort them in their hardship,” Cardinal Bertone added. “As a token of consolation, the Holy Father sends a special apostolic blessing to all persons touched by this tragedy.”

Archbishop Peter Smith of Edmonton, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, encouraged his brother bishops to take up a special collection to assist survivors of the disaster.

 

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Further information:

• Pope Francis prays for victims, families of Canada train derailment (Vatican Radio)
• Message by CCCB President - Tragedies in Calgary and Lac-Mégantic (Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops)
• Lac-Mégantic derailment (Wikipedia)