Robert Lalah, Staff ReporterTHEY WERE missionaries of the poor. Yesterday, however, they were given a farewell fit for a king.
Suresh Barwa and Marco Las Puña, the members of Missionaries of the Poor who were shot and killed on October 27, were buried yesterday after a well-attended thanksgiving service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. This was followed by a huge procession along the streets of downtown Kingston.
The bodies of the brothers lay in two simple wooden coffins draped with a plain white cloth, at the very entrance to the church as the service began. The church was full when the service started at 10 o'clock in the morning. Members of the community, who later trickled unto the church grounds, were welcomed by the missionaries and offered seats under a large white tent on the lawn.
Parliamentarians, entertainers and high-ranking members of the security forces were among the attendees.
UPBEAT SERVICE
The service went on for well over two hours, but was upbeat the entire time. Father Richard Ho Lung, head of Missionaries of the Poor, called the slain brothers his sons, and declared that the work of the mission would continue unabated.
Archbishop of Kingston Lawrence Burke, was a bit more forceful when he addressed the congregation.
"We have to abandon partisan motives and agendas in order to build the nation. We have used housing to tribalise our people. We are reaping what we have sown and then stand back and say: How could this happen?" he said to loud applause from the crowd.
WORK TO CONTINUE
He, too, declared that the work of the mission and the church would continue, and urged members to do more work in an effort to take back the nation from criminals.
When the church service ended, the coffins were placed on the back of a small truck. The missionaries, all dressed in their customary white robes, their hands clasped before them, walked beside the slow-moving truck as it made its way into the inner-city communities where the slain brothers had worked.
Barwa and Las Puña both worked at the homes operated by Missionaries of the Poor. There, they took care of abandoned and mentally-challenged children, persons afflicted with AIDS and the elderly.
The procession stopped at the home called The Lord's Place. The patients, some in wheelchairs, came out to the gates to pay their respects. Several members of the community also came out of their homes and into the streets to join the procession. The missionaries were singing What a friend we have in Jesus, and in no time, the residents joined in, some holding burning candles.
The bodies were later taken to the Missionaries of the Poor compound on North Street for a private burial.
