Pilgrims Killed and Injured in Texas

MM brought this tragedy to my attention:

Tragic news concerning Viet Catholics from my area, Houston.

Please pray for all the victims and their families.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5931668.html

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13473


The bus that crashed in North Texas was en route to the Marian Days festival in Carthage , Mo. The annual festival -- which honors the Virgin Mary, patron saint of refugees -- typically draws about 50,000 Vietnamese-American worshipers to that tiny Ozark town.

The religious observance and festival grew out of the arrival of 185 Vietnamese refugees, who were taken to Fort Chaffee , Ark. , after the 1975 fall of Saigon .

They were allowed the use of a vacant seminary at Carthage , which grew into the site of a large Vietnamese congregation.