Vatican City, 13 June 2016 – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., issued the following declaration yesterday afternoon, following the attack in a nightclub in Orlando, U.S.A., which caused the death of 53 people and left more than 50 injured, some critically.

"The terrible massacre that has taken place in Orlando, with its dreadfully high number of innocent victims, has caused in Pope Francis, and in all of us, the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation, of pain and turmoil before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred. Pope Francis joins the families of the victims and all of the injured in prayer and in compassion. Sharing in their indescribable suffering he entrusts them to the Lord so they may find comfort. We all hope that ways may be found, as soon as possible, to effectively identify and contrast the causes of such terrible and absurd violence which so deeply upsets the desire for peace of the American people and of the whole of humanity."