Pope prays for Philippines Mass blast victims

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 3 - Pope Francis on Sunday said he was praying for the four victims and 42 injured in a blast at a Mass at a Philippines university suspected to have been carried out by Islamist militants.
    "I wish to assure my prayers for the victims of the attack that took place this morning in the Philippines, where a bomb exploded during mass. I am close to the families, to the people of Mindanao, who have already suffered so much", Francis said at the weekly Angelus prayer, in an appeal read in his place by Mgr Paolo Braida.
    The 86-year-old Argentine pontiff was unable to deliver the prayer in person because he is still feeling the after-effects of a nasty bout of bronchitis and fever. (ANSA).