Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jul 25, 2013 / 14:30 pm
Pope Francis asked for a moment of silence for 21-year-old pilgrim Sophie Morinière, who was on her way to participate in World Youth Day but died in a bus accident July 17.
During the Pope's welcoming ceremony for World Youth Day on July 25, he expressed his condolences for those who were also badly injured just days before the event.
The bus, which was taking a group of pilgrims of the Saint-Léon parish in Paris to Rio, collided with a truck close to Kourou in the French Guiana, a country bordering north of Brazil.
The young woman had traveled from Paris to take part in World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro and was with other friends in Guiana where they had spent a week prior to the global youth event.