By Matters India Reporter:
Panaji: Father Heston Ferrao, assistant parish priest of Our Lady of Snow Church, Raia, jumped into action when he found no one to prepare graves for the frequent deaths in his parish.
“Our grave-digger was on leave. The parish had some times 3 to 4 Covid-19 deaths a day in the second week of May. We faced a very difficult time,” Father Ferrao told Matters India May 25.
The young priest noticed that people were scared to come to the cemetery or dig graves for their people or others. He not only conducted the funeral services, but dug the grave also.
Seeing the priest’s gesture, some youth came to help. “Initially two joined the mission and later others also. It was their initiative,” the priest said.
The youth proved that no work was below dignity. “Every work deserves praise. Every the dead deserves a decent burial specially at this crisis period,” the priest asserted.
Expressing his happiness at the youth’s work, Father Ferrao points out that burying the dead is a corporal work of mercy, according to the Catholic teachings.
“Let us reach out to our brothers and sisters who are struggling at this time. We now request the relatives to arrange the grave-digging if it is a normal death,” he added.
“It was a good experience. People supported us. And we felt joy being of service to our parishioners,” said Father Ferrao.
Jalson Pachero, a youth volunteer, said, “I had never done such work in my life and I was afraid. So, at first, I did not respond to the request for help. Today I can say that it took away all my fear and made me stronger.”
For Welkin Oliveira, another youth, says he got an opportunity to help society in the pandemic times. “I will never forget this experience. It makes me proud,” he told Matters India.
Darron Moraes, another youth, said they received positive vibes and encouragement from their parishioners. “So we went ahead tiding over our initial fears and anxiety,” he added.
Kevin, another volunteers, said they were inspired by the “Samaritan,” a group of priests helping funerals of Covid-19 patients in Kerala.
Priests, he added, would do the prayers at the funerals and then leave the place.
But the “Samaritan” priests dressed in PPT kit do everything — from placing the coffin in the grave to pulling the slab over it. “They depart only after saying five “Our Father” for the departed soul. No one recognizes them as they are not in their normal priestly dress. Not even the families may recognize them as priests,” the young man explained.
“The “Samaritan” group began their services in the diocese of Kothamangalam in June 2020. There have conducted about 85 burials in different parishes.
“They do it silently. No social media has posted about their services. But they continue their challenging mission,” Kevin said.
“We now request the relatives to arrange the grave-digging if it is a normal death” – this is probably the most significant sentence in the entire report. Father Ferrao did well to ask families of those dying a death other than of COVID-19 to make their own arrangements in terms of burying the deceased concerned.
Response-ability = Ability to respond to needy situations is the need of the hour.
The initiative of this group is deeply appreciated.
Exemplary service by the youth and priests. On NDTV I saw a similar report of a group in Bangalore. I think they were called HERE I AM. God bless all such frontline workers.