The Holy Father particularly mentioned the girls who were at the Christian summer camp. Some two dozen of them are still missing.
Pope Leo spoke in his native English after leading the midday Angelus today at the Vatican, to assure his prayers and condolences for the victims of the flooding in Texas.
The death toll was at 52 at the time of publication, just under an hour after the Holy Father expressed his prayers. There are 27 girls from a Christian summer camp who remain missing.
Among the dead were at least 15 children.
The Pope said:
Greetings to the English speaking pilgrims. I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.
The New York Times featured some of the history of Camp Mystic, which will celebrate 100 years next year, and had about 750 girls participating this year. The camp is non-denominational Protestant, but Mass is offered on Sundays for Catholic campers.
The newspaper noted that three generations of descendants of President Lyndon Johnson have participated in the camp over the years, and Laura Bush, wife of President George W. Bush, served as a counselor.
The archbishop of San Antonio, where the flooding occurred, spoke to OSV News about his and the Church's response. Particularly poignant was his reference to another recent loss of young lives in Texas: the school shooting in Uvalde in 2022.
“I was very involved with what happened in Uvalde, Texas, with the killing of 19 children and two teachers, three years ago, and we’re still dealing with that,” Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said.
Following the floods, the archbishop said despite the cause being different, “the fact is the same: lives are missing,” and “the families are going through a lot.”
