Catholic clergy have led the prayers at makeshift memorials for the departed souls of the 13 Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants who died in a horrific collision on March 2, one of the deadliest border crashes on record.
Authorities suspect the crash, which left 12 passengers gravely injured, occurred after an overfilled SUV ran a stop sign and was struck by a 2-trailer semi-truck. It occurred at the intersection of Highway 115 and Norrish Road, about 4 miles away from Holtville, east of El Centro.
All 25 in the SUV are suspected of having crossed the border illegally about 30 miles east of Holtville, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
A makeshift memorial with wooden crosses, decorated signs, flowers, and Catholic saint candles popped up at the accident site. Smaller memorials have cropped up in the other three corners of the site.
Father Edward Horning, pastor of the Catholic Communities of Brawley & Westmorland, led a service for the victims two days after the crash. He guided a short liturgy of commendation for the deceased at Potter’s Field, a graveyard in Holtville where unidentified migrants are buried, then at the main makeshift memorial.
“The accident is a terrible tragedy,” Father Horning said. “We lift up in prayer those who have died, pray for the families, and feel the urgency to move our country towards a just and humane immigration reform.”
He has shared news about the crash on his Facebook page, @EdwardHorning, which has carried prayer services live.
Deacon Marcos Lopez, of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Brawley, visited the site on March 7 after Sunday Mass and said “it was like a special day of mourning.”
On March 10, a small caravan of San Diego-based activists traveled from Chicano Park in Barrio Logan to the crash site to join mourners from the valley, including Deacon Lopez and other deacons, for a Liturgy of the Word service. The activists were from Gente Unida, a nonprofit organization dedicated to humane immigration reform.
“I feel the pain of these people,” Deacon Lopez said at the service. “Until the end of my time in this life, I will pray for them every day.”
“We really do need prayer, especially for these souls to make it home to God in His heavenly kingdom,” he said.
The activists from Gente Unida held another event at the site on March 17.
The founder of Gente Unida is a longtime border activist, Enrique Morones, who was a classmate of Father Horning at St. Augustine High School….
The above comes from a March 28 story in the Southern Cross.
Is it really a tragedy? Is it a tragedy if you play with fire and explosives and get burned or die?
The car was overfilled and ran a stop sign. Facts. The loss of life was unfortunate, but had they not crossed into America illegally, nor put more passengers in the car than seats, nor illegally run a stop sign, they would all be alive right now.
A tragedy? No… the death of the married couple from Yreka from a falling redwood tree that crushed their car on the road, leaving five young children orphaned, is a tragedy. This story here is not about a tragedy; it’s about consequences.
“Every life is important,” he continued, “so we wanted to honor these people … and remember that they’re human beings that simply wanted to have a better life.”
For some reason the edit left out the last sentence.
For Catholics, burying the dead is an corporal act of mercy.
You need to look up the definition of tragedy in the dictionary. This was definitely a tragedy, a horrible tragedy.
No, I’ll call it a misfortune for those people. It’s not a tragedy because they brought it on themselves.
Anonymous, your horrific attitude is extremely un-Christian. May God love and bless the poor souls who died in this awful crash, and comfort their grieving loved ones! Always pray for those who make sad mistakes, and are desperate (including you, me, and everyone on earth) and pray for those poor souls, children of God– who suffer and die in horrible tragedies. You cannot possibly know their thinking and motives— or their possible sufferings, hardships, victimizations, and terrors. Do not heartlessly condemn poor, suffering souls, who have endured senseless tragedies– pray your Rosary for them. God love and bless them all.
No GoFundMe for the victims’ families?
This is a tragedy, even if it is about tragic unintended consequences of unsafe and illegal activity. Praying for and burying the dead are acts of mercy. We should always pray for and bury the dead (and pray for their loved ones as well). That’s what Christians do. It’s not the same issue as the border crisis, where national security, welcoming refugees and other issues of prudential judgment are involved and, about which, faithful Catholics, in good conscience, may disagree.
Thank you, Deacon Craig.
Is anyone investigating ages of the people in the SUV? The border so porous now that traffickers just go on through with “immigrants” they are bringing in. Cartels bracelet their mule people or indentured sex slaves so the cartels up here can find them and not kill the family back home.
Walls and doors, Mr. President! Walls and doors sift the wheat from the chaff.
Big walls, big doors.
They’re not responsible for their actions but apparently we are.