The Holy Father has sent a telegram of condolence, through Cardinal Secretary of State
Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., to Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels,
Belgium, for the victims of a coach accident in Sierre. Switzerland, in which twenty-eight
people lost their lives, twenty-two of them Belgian children on a school outing. "Having
learned of the tragic coach accident in Switzerland, which caused numerous victims
many of them children, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI associates himself in prayer
with the suffering of the mourning families, entrusting the victims to the mercy of
God and asking Him to welcome them into His light. He expresses his profound sympathy
to the injured and their families, and his closeness to rescue workers, praying the
Lord to give them help and consolation in their moment of trial. As a token of comfort,
the Holy Father confers a special apostolic blessing upon everyone affected by this
tragedy".