‘AN AWAKENING’
Violent attack leaves mixed emotions among parishioners
Eve Stith felt violated, or as she struggled to explain: “It’s like that feeling you get when someone breaks into your house and takes things — you feel deeply violated.”
But the office staff member of St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church also called it “an awakening” of some sort. “Maybe at the way I look at people and to be more aware, or maybe about life; that’s it’s precious and short and that maybe you need to enjoy life because you don’t know when it’s going to end,” she said.
Solemnity at the West Side church was jolted into disarray and dismay last Sunday when a violent attack during services left several parishioners stabbed, bleeding and injured, the place of worship bound by yellow crime scene tape.
Albuquerque police arrested Lawrence Capener, alleging the 24-yearold, who had been a church member for about three months, attacked choir director Adam Alvarez with a knife because he believed Alvarez was a Mason involved in a world conspiracy. Three other parishioners who helped stop the assault were also stabbed. All four are expected to fully recover.
In the aftermath, several parishioners talked of struggling to find meaning in what happened; the emotional fallout ranging from fear and disbelief to outrage and forgiveness.
They shared their thoughts during interviews before a Wednesday evening church reconsecration presided over by Archbishop Michael Shee-
han. The reconsecration preceded a confirmation service that had already been scheduled for that day, and many of the attendees were children.
The Rev. John Daniel, who was celebrating the Mass during last Sunday’s attack, told the Journal earlier this week that after he spoke with Capener’s mother, he was left with the impression that the man suffered from mental health problems. On Friday, he backed off those comments, saying he didn’t think it was appropriate for him to speculate.
He did say the congregation has “definitely responded,” coming forward to lend aid and comfort to not only the families of the injured, but also to the family of the alleged assailant. “We need to heal as a parish and part of the healing is being able to reach out to both families,” Daniel said.
‘We will overcome this’
For choir member Suzette Presti, who has tried to derive some meaning from what took place, she’s decided, “it underscores the need for society to do more to try and help the mentally ill.”
Presti in a telephone interview said she had spoken to Capener’s mother, who told her she had tried repeatedly to find some help for her son, but told Presti that ultimately, “she found nowhere to turn.” Presti hopes the incident will help lead society to look more seriously into “a current crisis in mental health care.”
“I’m afraid if we don’t,” she said, “this type of thing is just going to keep happening.”
Presti considered it “a miracle” so many people were willing to risk their lives to save one life, and called it a testament to the church and the closeness of its members.
Steven and Lori Trujillo and their 5-year-old daughter, Alysah, were at Wednesday evening’s service. They didn’t witness the stabbings Sunday, but the parents said they told the girl “a bad man had hurt some people, and that God has a plan, though we may not always know it.”
“We believe in our faith, and because it happened in God’s house, we will forgive those who trespass against us,” Lori Trujillo said. “If we believe and trust in our faith, we will overcome this.”
During Wednesday evening’s poignant and healing ritual, the scent of old flowers and musk wafted from burning incense as Archbishop Sheehan sprinkled holy water over bowed heads, the people crossing themselves as he passed.
“Make this church a place of communion and peace so that those who share the body and blood of your son may be filled with the spirit, and will grow in your life of love,” Sheehan said in prayer to those inside the church that sits near Unser and Paradise NW.
“Since the first Mass was celebrated in 1968, in the original church, the parish and surrounding community has grown tremendously,” reads a brief online history of St. Jude Thaddeus Parish, which opened its existing church in the fall of 2011.
Church law required the Wednesday’s reconsecration “due to the desecration of the church by the violent shedding of blood during the stabbing incident,” according to the Archdiocese.
Sheehan made few references to the assaults, instead focusing on the confirmation of nearly 70 young people. He spoke to the children, read letters they had sent to him and at one point told a joke about what it takes to get to heaven, prompting laughter from many in the audience.
Patricia Madrid, a sister of 53-year-old Gerald Madrid, who was the first to try to subdue the assailant on Sunday, said her brother, a flautist with the church choir, was recovering from multiple stab wounds and is “getting stronger and healthier every day.”
“We’re just grateful that he had the courage and faith to know that God was taking care of him, though he thought he was going to die,” Madrid said. “He’s already forgiven the man who did this, and we all pray for him and his mother.”
Because no one was killed, Madrid had a different perspective from most about what occurred.
“Some people said they felt the presence of evil,” she said, “but I saw the presence of God.”