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The first name released of those killed in the April 15 explosions at the Boston Marathon was that of 8-year-old Martin Richard, whose picture in newspapers showed him grinning broadly, apparently at his first Communion in May last year.
The young Catholic boy, one of three people killed when a bomb exploded near the finish line of the marathon, was remembered by his family and teachers at the Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy in Dorchester for his kindness and enthusiasm for learning.
In a statement asking for prayers, his father, Bill Richard, said his wife and daughter were both recovering from serious injuries.
A priest who consoled passers-by after the explosions said the event left him with the impression that evil can only be properly understood in the light of Christ’s passion and Resurrection.
“So many people are looking at what happened, trying to make sense of it,” Father Tom Carzon of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary told Catholic News Agency.
“We can figure out where it was made and how it was made and who did it, but even with all that information it never makes sense.”
However, after spending the afternoon consoling those affected by the attack, he remarked: “the cross and Resurrection, this is the story that does make sense.”
Around the Boston area, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and interfaith organisations scheduled prayer services and vigils for the days after the bombings.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston — who was returning home from a retreat in the Holy Land — said the prayers and concern of his archdiocese were with those who had “experienced the trauma of these acts, most especially the loved ones of those who lives were lost and those who were injured, and the injured themselves”.
Pope Francis sent a message to Cardinal O’Malley invoking “God’s peace upon the dead, his consolation upon the suffering, and his strength upon all those engaged in the continuing work of relief and response”.
Sources:
Image: Elite Daily
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News category: World.
