The words of the spokesman Lombardi: “Francis is following the terrible massacre with great concern and with prayer”.
“Francis is following the terrible massacre with great concern and with prayer. We condemn, in the strongest way, every form of senseless violence.” This is the Vatican’s first reaction to the terrible attack perpetrated in Nice on the evening of Thursday, July 14, when a young French-Tunisian, driving a truck, deliberately mowed down dozens of people who were crowded along the Promenade des Anglais to watch fireworks. The provisional death toll is 84, and there are at least 20 injured who are listed in serious condition.
Shortly before 10:30 at night, the truck plowed into the crowd that was celebrating July 14, France’s national commemoration of Bastille Day. The attacker in the white vehicle, who drove at a speed of 80 km/h, shot at the people through the window, while driving in a zig-zag motion for 2 kilometers to hit more people. Among the victims there were also many children. The attacker was shot down by the police and some witnesses claim to have heard the man shouting “Allah Akhbar” before he was killed.
The director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Father Federico Lombardi, issued this short statementto Vatican Radio: “Throughout the night we have followed with great concern the terrible news from Nice. On behalf of Pope Francis, we join in solidarity with the suffering of the victims and of the entire French people this day that should have been a great holiday. We condemn in the strongest way every demonstration of senseless violence, of hatred, terrorism and any attack against peace.”
Last November, the morning after the bloody attack at the Bataclan theater and in other locations in Paris, in which 129 people were killed, Pope Francis - during a brief phone call with Lucio Brunelli, the director of Tv2000 - said “I am moved and grieved. I do not understand, but these things are difficult to understand, done by human beings. For this I am moved and grieved, and I pray. I am so very close to the French people who are loved so much, I am close to the families of the victims and Ipray for all of them.” The Pope included the attack as part of the ‘third world war fought in pieces’ which he has repeatedly mentioned. Bergoglio concluded that there can be no “religious and human” justification for such facts.
Condemning the horrendous massacre in Nice, as reported by “Il Sismografo”, there is also Bishop André Marceau - who, in the columns of La Croix, expressed all of his grief and consternation. “What lies in the heart of a man when he performs such an act of hatred, savagery and death? These are serious questions that remain unanswered. We are witnesses to unbearable scenes of war.”
The role of the Church, Msgr. Marceau specified, is to bring comfort to the relatives of the victims, to those who suffer, to offer prayers for so many innocent people and “to keep a window open that shines a light on these darker aspects of the human soul; we believe that compassion and consolation are a means by which the human heart is touched by love.”
To keep this sensibility alive and alert, which is essential to avoid falling into the trap of those who sow fear and death, the bishop of Nice said that “we must be careful to not let ourselves be overcome by hatred, by the desire for violence, by discrimination or by the desire to close in on ourselves. We must avoid this drift at all costs, and take care that our pain will not generate that which is the origin of these facts.”
Finally, the bishop invited the faithful of the diocese to unite in prayer vigils to gather the “cries of pain” of those who have been affected by this dark attack.
And to the bishop of Nice, Pope Francis wrote a message which was signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin: “While France was celebrating its national holiday, blind violence once again struck the country in Nice, resulting in numerous victims including children . Condemning such acts once more, His Holiness Pope Francis expresses his deep sorrow and his spiritual closeness to the French people. He entrusts to God’s mercy those who lost their lives, and identifies strongly with the pain of the bereaved families. He expresses his sympathy to the wounded, as well as to all those who helped in the rescue efforts, asking the Lord to sustain everyone in the midst of this trial. Imploring God for the gift of peace and harmony, he invokes the grace of divine blessings upon all the affected families and upon all of the French.”
