JOHN A TORRES

Torres: Priest's message: Don't suffer alone

John A. Torres
FLORIDA TODAY

The message is simple yet powerful: You don’t have to suffer alone.

The Rev. Jorge Torres, Catholic priest and vocation director with the archdiocese in Orlando, has been sharing that sentiment with the families of the victims of last weekend’s mass shooting that left 49 innocent people dead.

Rev. Jorge Torres, a Catholic priest, who has ministered to families of the victims of the Orlando mass shooting.

Torres, no relation, volunteered to help even before receiving the phone call, knowing already that it was "Latin Night" at the Pulse Nightclub and many Hispanic families might feel more comfortable talking to him, a native of Mexico.

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“We do what we need to do but it has never been like this. Never this many,” he told me early Thursday morning. “I volunteered once I heard because I knew there would be people that needed something. We are called to do this.”

Torres was there ready to help pick up the pieces when families were being told that their loved ones were not among the fortunate being treated at the hospital. He was there as they pleaded with representatives from the Medical Examiner’s Office to make sure, to check a birthmark or tattoo.

He was there when they collapsed in collective heaps of grief.

He was among the numerous clergy trying making themselves available for as many family members as possible, regardless of creed.

“We were working with different chaplains of different faiths and everyone was very respectful,” he said. “No one refused an offer or an opportunity to pray.”

He praised the efforts of the first responders and all those involved in making sure that only the absolutely correct information made it to the families.

“These families were being tested and stretched but delays are better than misinformation,” he said.

While everyone grieves differently, Torres knew what to expect from the large number of Hispanic families suddenly hit with the devastating news. He said there was fainting, screaming, yelling, shaking, the inability to walk and sometimes blame and arguing.

“The medicine for all this is Jesus,” he said. “It was about being there with them and telling them about Jesus at the cross yelling ‘father, father, why have you forsaken me?’ But using that as a means to get closer to God and not distance themselves from him.”

Torres: How much more can Orlando take?

Because, Jesus was not alone in his suffering.

“The Father saw his Son die on that cross too,” he said. “God has not walked away from us. And you can see that once they heard that message, they said, ‘OK.’”

Torres,who was raised in New York, said Orlando’s Hispanic community is large but close-knit and the tragedy has been a unifying force for the community.

“There has not been one moment without  someone offering help, prayer, water, food donations," he said, adding that others have opened their homes and offered rooms to complete strangers who have traveled from out of town to console family.

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“Everybody knows somebody affected,” he said.

His ministering did not end with the grief counseling. He has been busy helping arrange funerals, transportation of bodies to other countries or just helping families connect or in some cases reconnect with their local parishes.

Because we should never suffer alone.

Contact Torres at 321-242-3684 or at jtorres@floridatoday.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FTjohntorres.