Father Jorge Ortiz-Garay did not want his parishioners to be afraid.
The world all around us is in crisis, he said as he celebrated Mass at St. Brigid’s Church in Brooklyn on March 19, the pews empty and his flock watching at home via live stream. But perhaps the coronavirus, and the fear it has brought, can be seen as an opportunity to become closer to God.
“There’s no better time than this time of trials, this time of challenges, to fulfill our call to holiness,” said Father Jorge, as he was known. “At these moments of trial and crisis, at these times when maybe we are asking what will happen to us, trust in the Father.”
He assured his parishioners that he was in good health.
But eight days later Father Jorge died at Wyckoff Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn. He was 49.
He was the first Catholic priest in the United States known to have died of the coronavirus, according to the Diocese of Brooklyn, which said two more of its priests had also tested positive.
Father Jorge’s death on March 27 marked a grim milestone for the Roman Catholic Church, that most ritualistic of institutions, whose sacred and elaborate traditions have been utterly disrupted by the pandemic. Its fundamental rites — including congregating to worship — have been fractured by imposed isolation and social distancing.
Now, mourners say, they are doubly pained by the loss of a church leader and the inability to come together and share the comforting rituals of public grief.
Restrictions on public gatherings, and the fact that the Diocese of Brooklyn canceled all Masses and closed all churches and rectories last month, mean that no public funeral mass will be held for Father Jorge anytime soon.
Elimelec Soriano, a layman who helped Father Jorge organize events for the Mexican community, said he had been flooded with calls from grieving parishioners across Brooklyn and Queens.
“People keep saying, ‘We have to do something for him,’ and I keep saying to them, ‘We will, we will, we just have to pray that this virus goes away first and things go back to normal,’” said Mr. Soriano.
No comments:
Post a Comment