Pope Francis offers prayers for victims of Lampedusa boat sinking

October 3, 2013: Pope Francis has offered prayers after a boat carrying African migrants sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa this morning.
The boat carrying around 500 migrants reportedly caught fire with the estimated number of victims so far reaching 82. According to Vatican News, among the victims were a pregnant woman and two children, a boy and a girl, under the age of three. Around 150 survivors have been rescued, but a number of bodies have been seen floating in the water and more than 250 people are said to still be missing.
In response to the tragedy Pope Francis tweeted: “We pray to God for the victims of the tragic shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa.”
Pope Francis visited Lampedusa, his first trip as Pontiff outside Rome, in July. The small Italian island and its migrants’ centre is the first port of call for scores of migrants arriving in Italy from all over the world.
Monsignor Francesco Montenegro, archbishop of Agrigento and president of the CEI for Migration, said: “This is news that gives rise to feelings of sadness and outrage because we cannot continue to count the dead as if we were simply witnesses. The stories of people who make the trip, as the Pope said when he visited Lampedusa, are stories that are intertwined with ours.”
At around 7.20am local time, two distress signals were received by the harbour master from two fishing boats, the coast guard reports. Both referred to migrants drowning about half a mile off the coast off Lampedusa’s Rabbit Beach.
(Source: Catholic Herald)