The Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal), Mons. Rui Valério, raised his prayers for the dead and injured of the accident of the elevator da Gloria, an emblematic funicular that crashed at high speed against a building this September 3.
In a note published in the website The patriarchy indicates that the patriarch has received “with deep pain and sadness” the news of the accident, which has left at least 15 dead and 18 injured; and that happened around 18:05 (local time).
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“At this difficult moment, D. Rui Valério elevates prayers to God by the victims, in addition to expressing their closeness to their families, in this moment of separation and deep pain,” the note continues, in which the patriarch wishes the injured “a prompt recovery.”
The Patriarch of Lisbon also expressed his gratitude and solidarity with whom they mobilized to help victims, such as emergency teams, health professionals, authorities and volunteers.
The patriarchy reported Also that Mons. Valério will preside over a mass, for the victims of the accident, in the Church of São Domingos, in Rossio (Lisbon), this Thursday, September 4, at 7:00 p.m. (local time), to which all the faithful of the Portuguese capital invite to participate.
According to BBCuntil now the causes of the accident are not known nor is it clear how many people had aboard the funicular, a tourist attraction of Lisbon, inaugurated in 1885 and electrified 30 years later.
A witness told Portuguese television that, at the time of the accident, the elevator of Gloria went down “at full speed” on the steep street and violated violently against a building.
“He crashed with a brutal force and collapsed like a cardboard box; he had no brakes,” said the woman quoted by AFP.
Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, indicated in his X account that the City Council he directs has decreed three days of mourning for the victims of the accident accident gives gloria and offered his “more sincere condolences to all the relatives and friends of the victims. Lisbon is mourning.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.