Canada prays for victims of Lac-Megantic train blast

St Agnes Church Lac-Megantic

Prayers have been said across Canada for victims of the train derailment which caused catastrophic explosions in the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic. The bodies of 33 people had been found by Saturday night. Another 17 people are missing and presumed dead.

On Friday evening, a candlelight vigil was held at Lac-Megantic's Saint Agnes church, near the site of the crash. At midday on Saturday, people gathered on the huge steps of the church, while the bells were tolled 50 times, once for each person who died.

Many Masses were offered and prayer services were held across Canada through the weekend. In the province of Quebec province alone, services were in more than 50 towns and cities. More than 200 people attended a ceremony at the Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.

The train which crashed was carrying 72 cars of crude oil from the US state of North Dakota to a refinery on the east coast of Canada. It was parked shortly before midnight on Friday in the town of Nantes about 11km away but rolled downhill, gathering speed until it derailed in Lac-Megantic and exploded, causing a huge fire and destroying more than 30 buildings.

On hearing the news last week Pope Francis sent a message of condolence, see: www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=22923

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Canada also issued a message of condolence and appealing for prayers and support for the survivors. See: www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/Message_-_Tragedies_in_Calgary_and_Lac-Mgantic.pdf

With a population of nearly 6,000, La Megantic is in a region which was discovered by Jesuit missionary Father Druillettes, who arrived in 1646 to convert the Abenaki indeginous people. The first colonists to build the town came two centuries later, around 1850, and were of French Canadian or Scottish origin. Lac-Mégantic has two Roman Catholic parishes, Sainte-Agnès and Notre-Dame-de-Fatima.

One important figure in the town was another priest, Fr Joseph Choquette, who, in his spare time, was an amateur scientist. He helped design an electric lighting system which, on the eve of Christmas in 1898, illuminated the entire city, and a power company.