Police and emergency crews search wreckage after a train accident in the Tempi Valley near Larissa, Greece, March 1, 2023. At least 36 people were killed and another 85 injured after a collision between two trains caused a derailment near the Greek city of Larissa late at night on Feb. 28, 2023, authorities said. / Photo by SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images
Rome Newsroom, Mar 1, 2023 / 11:02 am (CNA).
Pope Francis sent a message Wednesday saying he was praying for the victims of a train crash in northern Greece.
Authorities say at least 36 people died and more than 75 were hospitalized after two trains collided near the Vale of Tempe, a river valley about 235 miles north of Athens, just before midnight Feb. 28.
The cause of the crash between the passenger and freight trains is unknown. The stationmaster in the nearby city of Larissa was arrested by authorities on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Two other people were detained for questioning.
Rescuers were still searching the debris of several smashed train carriages on Wednesday. Multiple carriages were derailed and at least one caught on fire. Greece’s state broadcaster ERT reported that some people were thrown from the train by the impact and victims’ bodies were found 100-130 feet away from the crash site.
Pope Francis “was saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the train crash near Larissa, and he sends the assurance of his prayers to everyone affected by this tragedy,” a March 1 telegram to the bishops of Greece said.
“Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of God, [Pope Francis] offers heartfelt condolences to the families who mourn their loved ones,” the message continued. “To the injured, the emergency workers, and all those providing assistance, His Holiness imparts his blessing as a pledge of strength and solidarity in the Lord.”
Greece’s Minister of Transport, Kostas Karamanlis, resigned following the crash, calling it his duty “as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly,” AP reported.
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The opening of the Amazon synod at the Vatican’s Synod Hall, Oct. 7, 2019. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Jul 20, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops on Tuesday named the members of three groups helping to prepare the 2023 synod on synodality.
It listed the names on July 20, just three months before the start of a two-year preparatory phase involving Catholic dioceses worldwide.
A synod is a meeting of bishops gathered to discuss a topic of theological or pastoral significance, to prepare a document of advice or counsel to the pope.
The theme for the upcoming assembly is “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission.”
The general secretariat listed the members of a steering committee, a commission for theology, and a commission for methodology.
The steering committee has five members: Archbishop Erio Castellucci, who leads the Italian dioceses of Modena-Nonantola and Carpi; Fr. Giacomo Costa, S.J., president of the San Fedele Cultural Foundation of Milan and director of the magazine Aggiornamenti Sociali; Mgsr. Pierangelo Sequeri, president of the Pontifical Theological Institute John Paul II for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family; Fr. Dario Vitali, full professor in the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University; and Myriam Wijlens, professor of canon law at the University of Erfurt, Germany.
The commission for theology has 25 members from around the world. The commission, which is coordinated by Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, one of two under-secretaries of the Synod of Bishops, assists the synod secretariat by reviewing texts, presenting theological proposals “for the development of synodality,” and creating and sharing “materials for theological deepening,” according to the synod’s website.
The commission’s members include three Jesuits: Fr. Paul Béré, from Burkina Faso, the first African to win the prestigious Ratzinger Prize for theology; Fr. Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, a professor at the Comillas Pontifical University in Spain; and Fr. Christoph Theobald, a Franco-German theologian based at the Centre Sèvres in Paris.
The commission for methodology, coordinated by Sr. Nathalie Becquart, under-secretary of the Synod of Bishops, has nine members, including four women: Cristina Inogés Sanz, from Spain, Christina Kheng Li Lin, from Singapore, Sr. Hermenegild Makoro, C.P.S., from South Africa, and Susan Pascoe from Australia.
Also among the commission’s members is Fr. David McCallum, S.J., executive director of the Discerning Leadership Program, a collaboration between Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, and other institutions.
The commission’s tasks include collecting “best practices for synodal processes at all levels,” proposing “methodologies for the synodal process in all its phases,” creating a “a brochure/website on best practices,” and working on “the methodology/process for the celebration of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023.”
Earlier this month, Pope Francis named the Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich as the relator general of the synod on synodality.
Hollerich, the president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), will help to oversee the gathering of the world’s bishops in Rome.
An infographic showing the timeline for the synod on synodality. / Vatican Media.
The synod on synodality will open with a “diocesan phase” in October 2021 and conclude with the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in October 2023.
Pope Francis will “inaugurate the synodal path” over the weekend of Oct. 9-10 with an opening session and a Mass. All dioceses are invited also to offer an opening Mass on Sunday, Oct. 17.
During the diocesan phase, each bishop is asked to undertake a consultation process with the local Church from Oct. 17, 2021, to April 2022.
The Vatican will then release an instrumentum laboris (working document) in September 2022 for a period of “pre-synodal discernment in continental assemblies,” which will influence a second draft of the working document to be published before June 2023.
The process will culminate in a meeting of bishops at the Vatican in October 2023.
Vatican City, Jan 15, 2019 / 06:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Dialogue with society for the protection of human dignity and the common good, which are under threat, Pope Francis said in a letter to the Pontifical Academy for Life, published Tuesday.
A statue of St. Junipero Serra outside the California capitol in Sacramento, which was destroyed by a mob July 4, 2020. / Nathan Hughes Hamilton via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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