Brazilian parish offers Mass for souls of Eucharistic ministers who died in plane crash 

María Auxiliadora Vaz de Arruda, known as Doña Dora (right), was the coordinator of the extraordinary ministers of holy Communion at her parish. Her husband, José Cloves Arruda (left), also served as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. They are pictured here with their daughter Priscilla. / Credit: St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Guaratinguetá, Brazil

ACI Digital, Aug 13, 2024 / 15:02 pm (CNA).

“We are hurting, traumatized, dejected, but not defeated, not destroyed, because whoever eats this Bread will live forever,” said Father Aloísio Motta, pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Parish in the town of Guaratinguetá, São Paulo state, in Brazil at an Aug. 11 Mass celebrated for the souls of two extraordinary ministers of holy Communion at the parish who died in a plane crash in the town of Vinhedo on Friday, Aug. 9.

“This disaster took away people very dear to us and to Brazil,” Motta told the hundreds of faithful who filled the church to remember María Auxiliadora Vaz de Arruda, 74, and her husband, José Cloves Arruda, 76. “It tore away a piece of our beloved parish of St. Peter in the small town of Guaratinguetá.”

The Voepass Airlines plane crashed into the garden of a house inside a gated community in Vinhedo, Brazil, killing all 62 people on board. The plane took off Aug. 9 from the town of Cascavel in Paraná state at 11:46 a.m. bound for Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo state, about 450 miles away.

Aboard the plane was the couple, who were returning from a visit to their daughter, Priscila Vaz de Arruda, a professor at the Federal Technological University of Paraná, who lives in Toledo, also in Paraná state.

“This accident in Vinhedo once again brings us to reflect on the brevity of life and the important things we cannot forget: to love, to forgive, and to fill our innermost selves with absolute and eternal truths,” the priest continued in his homily.

María Auxiliadora, known as Doña Dora, was the coordinator of the extraordinary ministers of holy Communion in St. Peter Parish. Her husband also served as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist in the same parish.

“In this little place here, in the third row,” Motta said, “there was not a Sunday when Doña Dora was not there. There was not a Thursday when she was not there.”

“I was wrong when I said that the Catholic Church needs people like Doña Dora, because the Catholic Church depends on people like Dona Dora,” the pastor said. “We depend on a multitude of Catholics who make a difference.”

“We have to be a little bit like Doña Dora here among us. Let’s transform our pain into victory. Let’s transform our mourning into victory,” Motta encouraged. “We do depend on Doña Doras all over the world, men and women like her.”

“We will strengthen the Catholic faith as they always wanted. As she always did, based on zeal, dedication, commitment, responsibility, and love for the Eucharist,” the priest said.

Dora was a retired teacher and also worked at the Association of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional (people with physical and intellectual disabilities) in the city of Guaratinguetá. The association published this recollection in her honor: “Always with a smile on her face, a friendly word, serving God and her neighbor. Here is our eternal gratitude for everything she cultivated.”

This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.