An ecumenical celebration to commemorate the victims of the air disaster in southern Germany was held in recent days in the cathedral of Überlingen on the shores of lake Constance. The disaster, which cost the lives of over 70 persons, mainly children and adolescents, aroused immediate reactions on the part of the German Churches: “For many of us, the day began with the terrible news of a tragic accident, the mid-air collision of two planes over lake Constance”, declared Bishop Paul Wehrle of Freiburg on 2 July. “We are deeply shocked and saddened by the catastrophe that occurred during the night and that brought with it such incalculable grief. The sudden death of these children and teenagers, women and men continued the bishop has touched us deeply, it leaves us lost for words, even if we did not personally know them. To them, and to their families, go our profound compassion and our fraternal participation”. Manfred Kock, president of the German Evangelic Church (Ekd), yesterday sent a letter of condolence to the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow Alexis II: “We pray for the dead and we weep with you and with the Russian people”, says the letter. The Evangelic bishop of Baden Württemberg has assured the support of the local Church. The Pope, too, had also expressed his own condolence in a telegram sent on 2 July to Archbishop Giorgio Zur, apostolic nuncio, representative of the Holy See to the Russian Federation.
