(25 July 10 - RV) The Pope said today that his thoughts and prayers were with those
who lost their lives at a music festival in Duisburg, Germany. He was speaking
during his Sunday Angelus in the Courtyard of the Papal Summer Residence in the Roman
Hills. We have this report...
Pope Benedict
XVI on Sunday expressed his deep sorrow over the deaths of young People in his native
Germany who were attending an annual music festival.
The Holy Father spoke
of the tragic loss of young lives and said he was praying for all those who were crushed
during a panicked stampede at the Duisburg event on Saturday evening.
Hundreds
of people were also injured in the crush in an overcrowded tunnel that served as the
sole entrance to the festival and added he was also praying for them and for the families
of all the victims at this time of great suffering.
The Pope was speaking
on Sunday during his Angelus address at the Papal Summer Residence of Castelgandolfo
were he also went on to stress the importance of Lord's Prayer.
In
today’s Gospel Jesus teaches us the Lord’s Prayer. Following Christ’s own example,
I encourage you to pray for the grace always to be worthy sons and daughters of our
Father in heaven, and loving brothers and sisters to each other.
Pope Benedict
also noted that we are facing the first words of Scripture that we learn as children
words that are imprinted in our memory, that shape our lives, accompanying us to the
last breath.
Being young the Pope added becomes the equivalent of following
Christ.
Every time we recite the Our Father, our voice is intertwined with
that of the Church and those who pray are never alone.
Finally, the Holy Father
who is officially on his summer holidays reminded the estimated 3,000 pilgrims gathered
that Sunday the 25 was the Feast Day of the Apostle James, Patron Saint of Compostela,
who the Pope recounted left his father and his job as a fisherman to follow Jesus.
The Holy Father also dedicated a special thought to the pilgrims who have
travelled in great numbers to Santiago de Compostela and said he hoped to join the
faithful at this Spanish shrine as part of his a visit to Barcelona in November.