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The Holy Year of Mercy, calls for us to bury, pray for the dead
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July 1, 2016
Sisters Agueda Durazo and Maxie Cruz of the Missionary Daughters of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, Father Peter Thenan of Our Lady of Good Counsel and funeral director Roy Cantu pray over cross for immigrant.
Photos by KRGV-Channel 5 News
When they die, many of them are alone. They are often barefoot and covered in bites from snakes, scorpions and ticks. They are thirsty, hot and suffering. Nobody but God knows their final thoughts. It is a tragedy when anyone dies, even when that person is called home after a long and beautiful life, but Roy Cantu has a special place in his heart for the immigrant who perishes in the most desperate of ways—on their journey in search of a better life for his or her family.
“It’s torture. Walking through those fields alone, in 110 degree heat, all because they hope for a better life. They are often found clutching rosaries, prayer cards or with scapulars around their necks. My prayer is that the Virgin Mary welcomes them into heaven with open arms,” Cantu, a funeral director in Kingsville said.
Roy Cantu
Their bodies, once discovered by authorities, are processed and an effort is made—although not always successfully—to identify them. They are then turned over to funeral homes in the area, like Turcotte-Piper where Cantu is funeral director. If the body is identified, it goes back to the person’s homeland. If the body is not identified, the county where the body was discovered pays for a pauper’s burial.
There is no policy for the funeral home to notify a minister or priest. Cantu does it anyway.
“I can’t just bury a person like they are nothing,” Cantu, who once thought about becoming a priest, said. “That person is a human being, a creature of God. Though I never became a priest myself, I feel led to help give people a proper Christian farewell.”
Earlier this year, a Guatemalan immigrant was killed in a roadway accident near U.S. Highway 77. The woman was identified a few days after her death, and her family asked Cantu for a special favor.
“They asked me, ‘Please place a cross at the spot where she died and please find a priest to bless her body,’” Cantu said. “Not only did I do that, but I also made three Mass intentions in her name.”
Cantu called on Father Jose Naul Ordoñez, pastor of St. Martin of Tours in Kingsville, to bless the body.
Father Naul Ordoñez.
“As Catholics, we believe in new and eternal life,” Father Ordoñez said. “We must bless and pray for people who lost their life, especially this way. Our prayers connect us together as one. Our blessing helps the person who died and their family.”
Father Ordoñez says his parish says special rosaries, prayers and Mass intentions and he keeps all immigrants in his personal petitions.
“They need our mercy, no matter what country they came from,” Father Ordonez said. “We can’t divide or discriminate. We need to recognize the love of Jesus Christ is for all of us.”
Once Cantu was able to find out exactly where the woman perished, he organized a group of religious men and women to place the cross. The group included Father Peter Thenan of Our Lady of Good Council in Kingsville and sisters with the Missionary Daughters of the Most Pure Virgin Mary from St. Martin’s Convent in Kingsville.
In 2015, Pope Francis called for a Holy Year of Mercy—which includes the spiritual work of praying for the dead and the corporal work of burying the dead.
“In the summer of 1978—the year I started working at Turcotte-Piper—I entered into a personal Holy Year of Mercy,” Cantu said. “For me, that Holy Year will continue until my death. I have done my best to bury the dead in his name. I am not a perfect man, but I do all of this for the glory of God and his Holy Mother.”
