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Car crash kills three relatives of Pope

August 19, 2014
Firefighters inspect the car of Emanuel Bergoglio, nephew to Pope Francis, which crashed with a truck in James Craik, Argentina, early Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. Emanuel Bergoglio was seriously wounded as two young great-nephews of Pope Francis as well as their mother, the wife of the pope's nephew, were killed in the crash, according to the Vatican and a local police official. (AP Photo/DyN)

Firefighters inspect the car of Emanuel Bergoglio, nephew to Pope Francis, which crashed with a truck in James Craik, Argentina, early Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. Emanuel Bergoglio was seriously wounded as two young great-nephews of Pope Francis as well as their mother, the wife of the pope’s nephew, were killed in the crash, according to the Vatican and a local police official. (AP Photo/DyN)

Three relatives of Pope Francis died and a fourth was in serious condition after a motor accident in Argentina, the Associated Press reports.

The car was carrying a nephew of the pope, Emanuel Bergoglio, along with the man’s wife and two young children before it slammed into a back of a truck at a highway in Cordoba, central Argentina, Tuesday morning (local time).

The crash killed the wife and children, one two years old and the other eight months. Bergoglio is also in critical condition.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said: “The pope was informed about the tragic accident. He is profoundly saddened.” He added that the pope asks “all who share in his grief to unite with him in prayer.”