WASHINGTON (July 19, 1999) -- Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas, President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued the following statement after the U.S. Coast Guard found no signs of the plane carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette, believed lost at sea July 16.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops joins with the Kennedy and Bessette families as they mourn the loss of John F. Kennedy Jr, his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.

The pain surrounding this tragedy is shared by many in this nation and especially by their fellow Catholics who join them in prayer and ask God's comfort for the families at this time.

It is our hope that in this time of anguish, the Kennedy and Bessette families will find strength in their union with God, feel solace in the realization that life is not ended but changed, and fondly recall that God graced them, even for too short a time, with the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette.

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