FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Rev. Christopher Pollard212-370-7885 Ext. 30cpollard@holyseemission.orgNew York, NY, Mar. 15 – The Holy Father has sent a telegram of condolence, through Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., to Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium, for the victims of a coach accident in Sierre. Switzerland, in which twenty-eight people lost their lives, twenty-two of them Belgian children on a school outing."Having learned of the tragic coach accident in Switzerland, which caused numerous victims many of them children, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI associates himself in prayer with the suffering of the mourning families, entrusting the victims to the mercy of God and asking Him to welcome them into His light. He expresses his profound sympathy to the injured and their families, and his closeness to rescue workers, praying the Lord to give them help and consolation in their moment of trial. As a token of comfort, the Holy Father confers a special apostolic blessing upon everyone affected by this drama".For more information about the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations,please visit www.holyseemission.org, which contains also links to the Holy See Press Office.###