Funeral, memorial, committal services allow miners' families to say prayerful good-byes

Intermountain Catholic

Photo 1 of 2

Members of the families of Luís Hernandez and Juan Carlos Payan place flowers at the site of bore hole number seven Sept. 10. Bishop John C. Wester blessed the ground at the site and said prayers of the Catholic committal service. Family members released blue and white balloons representing the souls of all nine miners lost.

HUNTINGTON — The wrenching search for six lost mines was over, leaving only funerals, a public memorial service, and a private committal service for the families of the three Catholic miners.

A funeral Mass for Luís Hernandez and Juan Carlos Payan was celebrated Sept. 6 at Mission San Rafael in Huntington. Concelebrated by Father Donald E. Hope, pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price, Father Omar Ontiveros of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, and Father Oscar Martinez of St. Joseph Parish, Ogden, the emphasis of the Mass was on resurrection.

Fr. Hope called the funeral Mass "a bittersweet occasion," and encouraged family members to remember the miners as, "those who taught you how to love one another. Now we ask God to bring them to himself."

A second funeral Mass, for Manuel "Manny" Sanchez, will be celebrated Sept. 15 at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Price.

At a public memorial service for all nine lost miners Sept. 9, Bishop John C. Wester, a guest speaker, spoke to the crowd in both English and Spanish. On a deep level, he said, nothing could be further from the truth than all hope is gone.

"Our hope is in God; our hope is in Jesus Christ, who conquered death and gave us eternal life through his cross and resurrection...

"There is another reason for our hope today," the bishop said. "I believe that all of us in Utah are convinced that your relatives are true heroes..."

On Sept. 10, 25 members of the Hernandez and Payan families, led by an Emery County Deputy Sheriff, made their way up the rugged hill to the seventh bore hole drilled in the fruitless search for the six trapped miners. There, Bishop Wester and Fr. Hope blessed the ground and said prayers of commital.

Grieving family members lay roses on the pallet covering the bore hole and released balloons for all nine lost miners. Each family member sprinkled the site with holy water, and spent silent time at the site. As the service ended, a lone eagle flew over the site, paused, and soared away.