The Holy Father, deploring the fact that the bloody conflict, which already has caused everywhere so much suffering, has again, on the very day of the Saviour's Passion, found more innocent victims, who are still dearer to his heart owing to their faith and piety, expresses his deepest sympathy. He sends the apostolic blessing to all the faithful in Paris, and desires to know if it is necessary to send material aid to the families in mourning. The Cardinal also received the following letter from Grand Rabbi Israel Levi on behalf of those of the Jewish faith: Your Eminence, I am the interpreter of the feelings of all my French co-religionists in saying that I share in the mourning which has come to so many families devastated by sacrilegious barbarism. We are one in pious indignation at the crime, which seems to have been intended as an insult to what humanity holds most sacred. Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, voiced the sentiments of New York Catholics in this message to the Archbishop of Paris: Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at religious services to commemorate the passing of our blessed Saviour on Good Friday, the Catholics of New York join your noble protest against this outrage of the sanctuary on such a day and at such an hour and, expressing their sympathy to the bereaved relatives of the dead and injured, pledge their unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers and men of the allied armies in their splendid defense of liberty and justice! Among those killed in this disaster was H. Stroehlin, Secretary of the Swiss Legation. The German Foreign Office later made an indirect expression of regret to Switzerland for this act, but sought to justify the bombardment on the ground that Paris is a fortress. The Kaiser sent a special note of congratulation to the managers of the Krupp works regarding the success of the weapon. AMBASSADOR SHARP'S REPORT William G. Sharp, the American Ambassador to France, visited the wrecked church shortly after the disaster and sent a detailed report to Secretary Lansing at Washington. The State Department, on April 3, issued the following: The Secretary of State has received from Ambassador Sharp in Paris a graphic report of his visit to the scene of the horrible tragedy which occurred on the afternoon of Good Friday in a church by the explosion of a German shell projected from far back of the enemy lines a distance of more than seventy miles. The appalling destruction wrought by this shell is, as the Ambassador remarked, probably not equaled by any single discharge of any hostile gun in the cruelty and horrors of its results.