After Parkland: Sharing kindness

By Cynthia Thuma - Florida Catholic

PARKLAND | Roughly a mile from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, just north of the intersection of the Sawgrass Expressway and University Drive, is Mary Help of Christians Parish, an active, diverse community celebrating in a sprawling church, school and preschool nestled in a serene, bucolic setting.

Early in the afternoon of Feb. 14, when word of a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High reached Mary Help of Christians’ school and preschool, the campus locked down. Though Mary Help of Christians parish didn’t suffer the physical and human damage Stoneman Douglas did, the parish has not been quite the same since that fateful day.

“The pain is not over; the sadness is not over. It’s going to take quite a while to recover from this,” said Father Jorge Puerta, the church’s parochial vicar. “It will take at least a generation. But we need to continue.”

It didn’t take long for messages and tokens of support to begin arriving.

“It started the day after the shooting,” Father Puerta said. To his surprise, and that of the rectory staff, the kindness and generosity of people from all over the region, nation and even the world have been touching.

One of the first messages of support came from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, which sent a huge banner signed by members of the student body, staff and faculty, who wrote personal wishes and prayers. The banner was placed inside the front gates of the church courtyard.

Each day’s mail brought new surprises and the UPS and FedEx trucks brought even more.

The Jewish Federation of Broward County sent Purim goodie bags with cookies, candy and other snacks for each of the 663 students in the school.

“They actually threw in some extras, too,” quipped Rocío Muñoz, who teaches religious education at the parish and serves as its bulletin editor.

The prayer shawl ministry of St. John the Evangelist Church in Pocasset, Massachusetts sent dozens of hand-knitted prayer shawls and clasps. They were not the only such ministry to respond.

“People from all over the country have sent prayer shawls,” said Muñoz. “Some of the groups aren’t even Catholic, but they knit the shawls, put them on the altar, bless them and then send them to us.”

Several groups sent hundreds of handcrafted rosaries, each bearing a personal prayer for the recipient. Other groups have sent prayer cards and medals.

The Catholic church in Littleton, Colorado, sent 17 spiritual bouquets for victim families. Littleton, of course, was the site of the Columbine massacre.

A Christian Bruderhof community in northern New York sent two young adult students from their community to Parkland.

“They gave us the gift of their presence.” Muñoz said. “They said, ‘We hurt with you.’ When someone in our community suffers, we all suffer.” They also brought cases of books on forgiveness and grieving to leave behind in Parkland.

Father John Malthaner, pastor of St. Luke Parish in Erie, Pennsylvania, led a special prayer service for the Stoneman Douglas and Parkland communities and sent along a copy of the weekly message for his church’s bulletin. Muñoz ran it in MHOC’s bulletin. It read, in part:

“What can we learn from this tragedy? First and foremost, our society needs to discard the growing emphasis on the secular and get back to the basic values of the Gospel message. Through this tragic incident, we are once again reminded that each day we wake up and are given another opportunity to nurture our relationship with God and others…to place him in front of all else. We are given another opportunity to make the most of the gifts we have been given, and to be a Christ-like example to others. We are also reminded once again that this day could be our last.”

A Priority Mail box bearing a return address in Whippany, New Jersey brought one of the most touching gifts: hundreds of homemade crosses, each one unique and beautiful.

“The camaraderie I have seen in the wake of this tragedy has been amazing,” Father Puerta said. “I’ve said let’s see if we can take this situation and make the best of it. And now I’m hearing in confessions people saying things such as ‘I am now trying to treat my brother with greater respect,’ things such as that. We have to take forward the things we’ve learned from this.”

“The way I look at it is this: one man caused this pain,” Muñoz said. “We have to take forward the positive.”

Father Puerta agreed. “We have to show the generosity, the kindness that’s in all of us.”