Below is the statement of Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, expressing the Pope’s condolences for the victims of the shootings this weekend at a club in Orlando, Florida, claiming 50 lives and leaving 53 wounded, marking the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history:
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The terrible massacre that has taken place in Orlando, with its dreadfully high number of innocent victims, has caused in Pope Francis, and in all of us, the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation, of pain and turmoil before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred. Pope Francis joins the families of the victims and all of the injured in prayer and in compassion. Sharing in their indescribable suffering he entrusts them to the Lord so they may find comfort. We all hope that ways may be found, as soon as possible, to effectively identify and contrast the causes of such terrible and absurd violence which so deeply upsets the desire for peace of the American people and of the whole of humanity.
[Original text: English]
[Vatican-provided text]
