ROME — Pope Francis sent a telegram to the archbishop of Madrid to express his condolences after a powerful gas explosion ripped through a residential building in central Madrid on Wednesday, killing four people.
After learning of the “painful news” of the serious explosion that took in a building on Toledo Street in Madrid, the telegram states, the pope extends his “closeness and affection in these hard times” to the archbishop, Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, to the clergy, and to “all the children of that beloved people.”
Francis also “raises prayers to the Lord and entrusts especially to his mercy the eternal rest of the victims, as well as the wounded and their families,” the declares the telegram, written in the pope’s name and signed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The message ends by imparting the pontiff’s apostolic blessing “as a sign of Christian hope in the Risen Lord.”
Wednesday’s blast was the result of repairs being done to a gas boiler at a building owned by La Paloma Catholic parish. The electrician who was working on the boiler died, along with three more.
The explosion tore the façade off the building and injured at least 11 more people, one seriously.
The damaged building housed the offices and apartments for some priests of the Madrid archdiocese, Cardinal Osoro told Spanish broadcaster, TVE, but none of the resident clerics was among the victims.