exclamation

Important notice: To continue serving our valued readers during the postal disruption, complete unrestricted access to the digital edition is available at no extra cost. This will ensure uninterrupted digital access to your copies. Click here to view the digital edition, or learn more.

Soldiers stand as rescuers work at a site where an overpass for a metro partially collapsed May 3, 2021, with train cars on it at Olivos station in Mexico City. Picture taken May 4, 2021.
Soldiers stand as rescuers work at a site where an overpass for a metro partially collapsed May 3, 2021, with train cars on it at Olivos station in Mexico City. Picture taken May 4, 2021. CNS photo/Luis Cortes, Reuters

Church leaders offer prayers after Mexico City metro crash

By  David Agren, Catholic News Service
  • May 4, 2021

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican church leaders offered prayers for the victims of a metro line collapse that left at least 23 dead and more than 70 people injured.

Bishop Andrés Vargas Peña of Xochimilco -- which serves three southern boroughs in Mexico City -- offered condolences to the victims, while announcing each priest in the diocese would celebrate Mass three times May 4 "for the deceased, the injured and their families."

The bishop asked parishioners to pray for the victims and also asked diocesan priests in the affected area and hospitals treating the injured to provide spiritual support.

An elevated portion of a metro line in Mexico City collapsed at around 10:30 p.m. May 3, sending two train cars crashing onto a busy thoroughfare below and crushing at least one vehicle. Rescuers worked through the night to free trapped passengers and search for victims.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the cause of the tragedy remains unclear. Line 12 of Mexico City Metro, where the accident occurred, has been plagued by construction problems since being inaugurated in 2012.

Half the stations in Line 12 were closed in 2014 due to construction issues. A strong earthquake in 2017 also damaged columns on the metro line, but Sheinbaum said repairs were made and the inspections occur daily.

"Absolutely nothing will be hidden," President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his morning news conference May 4. "The people have to know the complete truth."

The Mexico City Metro serves 4.6 million passengers daily, carrying armies of workers from far-flung suburbs to jobs in the Mexican capital.

Tagged under:

Related items

More in this category: « Sri Lankan churches halt religious services as third wave of COVID-19 hits U.S. re-opens door to more refugees »

Please support The Catholic Register

Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.

For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.

DONATE