A video showing a crying elderly man approaching the altar during a Mass in Brazil – prompting the priest to interrupt the consecration and give him a hug – went viral and moved millions of people. Source: NCR Online.
Fr Carlos Henrique Fernandes of the Diocese of Tubarão, in Santa Catarina state, was celebrating Mass on January 18 when, moments before giving Communion, he saw an elderly man coming to him.
A longtime extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at the Church of St Francis of Assisi, the man, named Marcos, was attending Mass that day, along with his wife, but was not scheduled to help distribute Communion.
During the celebration, he was called by a relative and went out for a few minutes. When he came back into the church, he was visibly distressed.
“I was concluding the Eucharistic prayer when I saw him coming. I didn’t know what was happening, but he was visibly shaken. I even feared he might be having a heart attack,” Fr Fernandes told OSV News.
The priest immediately interrupted the celebration and embraced Marcos for a long time, while the man continued to weep.
“Some of the men of the community came to help him. They took him to a nearby room, made him sit and gave him some water,” Fr Fernandes said.
The priest then concluded the prayers and proceeded to give Communion to the faithful. He decided to go to Marcos and give him Communion as well before he was taken home.
At that moment, he was informed by the other men that Marcos had received dramatic news minutes before: His 20-year-old grandson, who lived in a nearby city, had just committed suicide.
Fr Fernandes later shared his reflections with the congregation, telling them that Marcos came to the pulpit in despair because he was longing for Jesus’ presence and solace.
The video of the event went viral the following week, with some posts reaching millions of views on social media. While the majority of viewers said they were deeply moved by the way the priest comforted Marco, some criticised the interruption of the Eucharistic prayer as a kind of desecration.
“I accept the diversity of opinions, but if something like that happened again, I would do the same. For me, faith manifests itself in our actions,” Fr Fernandes said.
FULL STORY
In Brazil, images go viral after priest interrupts Eucharist to comfort crying elderly man (By Eduardo Campos Lima, OSV News via NCR Online)
