After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin with the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis the pope prayed for the victims of an attack in Uganda, where rebels attacked a school near the Congo border, killing at least 38 students.
The pope also expressed sadness at the sinking of a refugee ship off the coast of Greece that has left more than 500 migrants presumed drowned, according to the Associated Press.
“Next Tuesday, June 20 marks the World Refugee Day promoted by the United Nations,” he said. “With great sorrow, I think of the victims of the severe shipwreck in recent days off the coast of Greece. And it seems that the sea was calm. I renew my prayer for those who have lost their lives and implore that we always do everything possible to prevent such tragedies.”
The pope greeted Catholic pilgrims from Florida, London, Munich, and Italy who were among the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to receive a blessing from the pope in his first public address since his surgery on June 7.
Pope Francis was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on June 16. His first stop was to pray before an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Basilica of St. Mary Major and to make a quick private visit to a group of religious sisters, the Institute of the Most Holy Child Mary, who run a guesthouse next to St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican has announced that the pope’s Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 21 has been canceled “to safeguard the Holy Father’s postoperative recovery.”
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
