PATRIARCH CALLS ON FAITHFUL TO ALWAYS REMEMBER VICTIMS OF NOVI SAD CANOPY COLLAPSE IN THEIR PRAYERS

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 1 /SRNA/ - His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije today held a memorial service at the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar for the 16 people who lost their lives in the Novi Sad canopy collapse on November 1, 2024, saying that faith in God and love for our fellow human beings oblige us to remember, pray, and care for one another forever.

He stressed that the pain felt by the families and the entire nation can be healed only through the comfort of prayer, but also through a clear awareness of responsibility.

"We prayed for the repose of their souls, knowing that there is pain when we part ways at a time that our human logic does not foresee, when we feel that something has happened earlier than it should have. But we know that what matters most is not when someone will depart into God's embrace, but where they will arrive – whether they will truly be in God's embrace or miss that embrace," the Serbian Patriarch said.

He called on the faithful never to forget those who lost their lives in their prayers, adding that every life is a gift from God, but that we also have a responsibility for it, just as we all bear responsibility for everyone in this case.

"But there is someone who bears responsibility for what happened differently. May God grant that, as we pray to Him and remember in our prayers those who lost their lives – Sara, Valentina, Milica, Nemanja, Vukašin, Anđela, Miloš, Anja, Stefan, Sanja, Vasko, Đorđe, Goranka, Vukašin, Milena and Đuro – we remain aware of everyone's responsibility, as well as of the particular responsibility of those directly involved," the Serbian Patriarch said.

Patriarch Porfirije said that the tragedy in Novi Sad should serve as an incentive for everyone to draw closer to God and become better people so that, as he stressed, they could also become closer and better to one another.

Fourteen people, including three children, were killed at the scene when the canopy at the Novi Sad Railway Station collapsed on November 1.

Three people were seriously injured, two of whom later succumbed to their injuries.