Tragedy

Yesterday I wrote about how water can heal and rejuvenate the weary soul. However, today I have witnessed the potential for water’s ability to destroy, or even kill. A fourteen-year old boy was found this morning at the bottom of a well, supposedly having fallen in sometime yesterday. He was attending one of the local Catholic schools. Fr. Francis and I were with Bishop Biguzzi around 9am this morning when he received the call (I was teaching him how to use his scanner). We immediately went to the site, and within an hour and a half people from all over the community had arrived to assist either physically or in prayer. He was carried out by the local fire department in front of a crowd of at least 250 townspeople, a great number bursting into wailing and tears at the sight of his body. I have never heard such a cry from so great a number. Perhaps the eeriest detail of the story was that when his body first appeared, his left hand was frozen clutching a rosary.

The medical coroner had assessed his head and neck, determining that trauma from the fall likely killed him on the spot. A grave site was prepared promptly. Around 2pm, there was a quick blessing of the body in front of the school. I counted at least seven priests from around the diocese who responded. Then the boy’s body, loaded into the back of a pickup-truck bed with his friends encircling, slowly drove down the road to the grave site, followed by a two-column line of every student in the school walking behind. The students numbered greater than 300, easily.

The Bishop had pulled me aside this morning, almost foreshadowing what I would see throughout this day. He told me that these people may be poor, but their solidarity is their strength. Men and women, boys and girls, they were all present to mourn or take action. Young school boys were openly crying on each others’ shoulders; I didn’t see any stoic suppression of emotions, as I guess I have grown accustomed to. I saw emotion raw and from the heart, as if understanding that the loss of one good life is truly a blow to the entire community.

Bishop Biguzzi has an obvious love for his people. From the first phone call this morning through four in the afternoon, he stayed steadfastly by the family members and his fellow priests, ensuring that everything that could be done was being down quickly and efficiently. He seemed to bring to life one of my favorite passages from an encyclical we studied this past semester, Ad Gentes: “the missionary…let him spend all and be spent himself for souls” (AG, #25).

Eternal rest, grant onto this boy, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

-Bob
written 05/31/01