BRAZIL, Pietro Marramarco Lovato. January 27, 2013, 3am. At around this time cell phones began ringing in various parts of the city with news that seemed unreal, lies or desperate requests for signs of life. In 234 cases, the answer “I’m ok” didn’t reach fathers, mothers, brothers, boyfriends, girlfriends or friends. A fire started by fireworks that caught the highly flammable sponge foam used to soundproof the Kiss Club in the centre of Santa Maria left more than one thousand university students, military officers, students and workers desperate. The toxic smoke prevented many of them from running towards the only exit. Most of them were able to escape and many went back inside to rescue their friends and complete strangers.
These victims experienced the kind of death that was practiced in the gas chambers of the concentration camps. Scientists identified that the main gas released by the combustion of the sponge that was used illegally to soundproof the walls was cyanide, the same used by the Nazis. Other young people were also caught in the fire. There are already abounding stories of real heroes who gave their lives to save their friends and strangers.
Sunday dawned with the entire city in mourning, horrified by the tragedy that up until now had seemed to be just a story. The hours stretched endlessly, and the city known for the joy of its youths, university entrance examinations, and painted animal faces spent the day asking that the list of the deceased could be shorter than it really was, and each family prayed that those who were missing would not be on that list: either safe and sound or in one of the hospitals.
The greatness of the tragedy and loss is magnified for such a small city like Santa Maria and no one was left unaffected. In addition to the 234 who died on Sunday, another young 21-year old man died in a Porto Alegre hospital. His older brother had recently been buried.
A mission that we’d never done before
I woke up when my brother Giovanni opened the bedroom door and said that more than twenty people had already died in a fire at the Kiss club, where there had been a party for six of the graduate courses of the Santa Maria Federal University (UFSM). My father, Thomé Lovato, graduated from UFSM and is today a lecturer and the director of the Rural Sciences Centre (which lost the greatest number of students), and where the two of us, Giovanni and I, study. For this reason, we were very anxious to hear news from our friends and colleagues. With each phone call, we were glad to learn that Providence stopped them from reaching the club.
The news on the radio and the Internet left us more worried, because those who were responsible for the lifesaving operations were saying that there were at least 200 victims. The tension took hold of all of us and at 11am we went to the Municipal Sports Centre (CDM) with Fernando Henrique (from the Santa Maria Boys’ Youth) and some of the Girls’ Youth to undertake a mission that we had never done before: take the Pilgrim Mother to comfort an entire city that weeping the loss of family members, colleagues and friends. Some of the Sisters of Mary also went to the scene of the fire and the hospitals to pray with the families. When we arrived, it was as if we’d suddenly found ourselves at a battle scene. Trucks with the bodies of the victims kept arriving to be identified in the CDM gymnasium. On the streets, the families were caught between hope and despair. Some saw that their loved ones were not among the dead, and others became desperate when they recognized someone they knew.
As we began to pray, many people drew closer to share and reaffirm the hope that the martyrs were already with God, and to ask for strength for the survivors. The impression was that the presence of the Blessed Mother in that place was helping everyone to understand and find strength to overcome this moment of great emotion. Everyone’s emotions were apparent and some people literally held on to the MTA. At 14.30 we returned to our homes, because we were going to celebrate our parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. My other brother, Tobias, came from Belo Horizonte especially to be present on this day that will mark us from us. But not even the presence of the entire family and the celebration could take place with the characteristic joy of our city. Many of us were gone.
Afterwards, the Santa Maria spirit was replaced with silence. The only noise on the streets was the cars. At UFSM, only the sound of ambulances carrying the wounded to the University Hospital could be heard. The city is slowly healing from the wounds, which deeply marked each person’s heart.
Living Chalices
Hours before the Kiss Club tragedy, the Brazilian Boys’ Youth concluded the second Christ Tabor Mission. For the first time, the four regions of Brazil were able to announce Christ transfigured and glorified, taking the Pilgrim Mother to communities. The motto: “The entire world is our battle field” drove us to give everything to the Blessed Mother, handing over our sacrifices, joys and acts into the chalice that will be transformed into the Blood of Christ. United by the Blood of Christ, the conquest for the Chalice seems to draw ever nearer. As we were drawing nearer to one another, another chalice, with the sacrifice of many human lives and apparently greater than the capacity to contain it seems to have been given to Santa Maria.
The tragedy causes us to reflect on what God may have wanted to say to our city, to each one of us in the Boys’ Youth, with so many young people losing their lives in a university town, whose very name carries its devotion to Mary in a special way. Trying to understand the reasons for this in the light of Divine Providence, I want to share two signs that helped me to understand and find a new way that may somehow help us.
The first is a prayer from Heavenwards and the words of the song: “La Labor del Apóstol” [The Apostle’s Work] from the Tiempo de Alianza [Covenant Time] album by the Colégio Mayor Pe. Kentenich that says: “The time for your love has arrived!” The second, a message sent on Tuesday by Ernest Brandstetter, a Brother of Mary, to my father which said: “We will go on in spite of the difficulties. No, our Founder would have said, precisely because of the difficulties. In other words, let us transform the negative into a positive. Christ used the Cross throughout his life as an instrument of salvation.”
We can take the message of Hope and Resurrection to the whole world
Through difficulties, such as wars, exile, the life of our heroes, the Movement has proved that it is God’s work. In its small instruments, which consecrate themselves entirely to Schoenstatt, the Mother of God showed the power of her Love. The chalice of these youths should be transformed into an impulse so that we, as the Brazilian Boys’ Youth, can live our Ideal. Bound to Mary, we can unite ourselves in prayer for the families and those who are still fighting for their lives. With the fire of our love for the transfigured Christ, we can take the message of Hope and Resurrection to the whole world. The preparation for Ignis and World Youth Day is a great way of honoring these people who are now with God, interceding for us.
The spirit of the Missionary Generation should take hold of our being and actions and in the midst of these events, we can found the next 100 years of Schoenstatt. Through our lives, we can be images of Christ Tabor and guide Santa Maria and the world towards a Covenant Culture.
Source: www.jumasbrasil.com.br
English translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Johannesburg, South Africa
