«I would like to remember, together with you, our dear brother Costantino Marchionni, who died last Monday while he was working,» the Pope said before bidding farewell to the pilgrims today.
«We raise to the Lord our prayer for him and for those who mourn him, as well as for all the victims of job accidents,» he added. «‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine!'» (Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.)
No sooner had he heard the news in his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, John Paul II paused to pray for the worker. Marchionni fell from mobile scaffolding, where he was working with another mason, from a height of 3.5 meters (11.5 feet). The other worker suffered minor contusions.
