No Greater Love

Intermountain Catholic

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Father Donald E. Hope, pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price, and the Central Utah missions, anoints the forehead of Crandall Canyon Miner Ruben C. Baza, a rescue miner, during an Aug. 16 prayer service at Mission San Rafael in Huntington.

HUNTINGTON – "What can we do for the families of the trapped miners?" Father Donald E. Hope, pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish in Price, Good Shepherd Parish, East Carbon, St. Michael the Archangel Mission, Green River, and Mission San Rafael in Huntington, hears everywhere he goes. People from the parishes and missions of Central Utah to its grocery stores and gas stations have wanted to know what they can do for the families of the six miners trapped 1,800 feed down and a mile inside the Crandall Canyon mine for more than two weeks. On Friday, Aug. 17, the voices changed, coming now from the families of the trapped miners: "What can we do for the families of the rescue workers who died in the mine?"

Fr. Hope has been shuttling from family to family since the first collapse at the Crandall Canyon Mine Aug. 6, that trapped Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luís Hernandez, Juan Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips, and Manuel "Manny" Sanchez, bringing with him comfort, prayer, and the concern of the community at large, a community that is now world wide.

Bishop John C. Wester of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, in a homily Aug. 8 during a Mass for the miners, their families, rescue workers, and Mission San Rafael community, urged participants to continue to ask God for help.

"There is so much we want to say, but it is difficult to find the right words for a situation like this," said Bishop Wester during the Mass that was concelebrated by Fr. Hope and Father Omar Ontiveros, a native of Mexico and pastoral assistant at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. "We are here to lend our love, our support, and our prayers to the trapped miners, their families, and also to their rescuers.

"At a time like this it is good to remember how one we are; how all of Utah is coming together," said Bishop Wester. "Often in our lives we find ourselves desperate and lost, feeling abandoned. But especially as we heard in the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus came to reassure us that God will not abandon us, even in our darkest hour?

"At times like this it is difficult to remember that as we are overcome with feelings of anxiety, sadness, even anger, that we can and should bring all of those feelings to God. Those feelings should be part of our prayer. God will understand our feelings because he is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Now is the time to place ourselves in God's presence. God is with us? he will answer our prayer directly or he will give us the grace to get through this difficult time."

This is also a time, the bishop said, for everyone to recognize the risks miners take to do their jobs, to support their families and us. "We should take this time to more deeply appreciate what they do.

"People went to Jesus to hear the good news. We pray today through the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, that we will soon hear good news," Bishop Wester said.

Mine officials and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) representatives have been drilling bore hole after bore hole, seeking signs and sounds indicating the six trapped miners deep in the mine survived the first collapse and the days following. Rescue attempts also continued, with their brother and sister miners working in 12-hour shifts at the mine's main tunnel opening, digging through coal and debris from the first collapse in hope of finding their brother miners.

Thursday, Aug. 16 found Fr. Hope celebrating a special evening Mass for miners' families and rescue workers at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Price. The word had gone out inviting all rescue workers of all faiths to come to the Mass to be anointed, to pray for their safety, and to receive medals of Saint Barbara, the patroness of mine workers and all people in danger.

"Devotion to St. Barbara as the patroness of miners started in Poland," said Fr. Hope. "There, the miners began to pray to St. Barbara, and the devotion spread to other parts of the world. Miners in Poland begin their days in the mine with prayers to St. Barbara: ?As I now descent into the dark bowels of the earth, I beseech thee, sweet Barbara, that I be kept from harm, for it liketh me not that I rush unbidden into God's presence."

As the Mass, the anointings, and the presentation of the medals closed, Fr. Hope received word of the mine's second collapse. He went immediately to Castleview Hospital in Price to help meet the needs of the rescuers and their families.

Later that night, they would receive word the second collapse took the lives of three rescue workers: Dale Ray Black, 48, from Huntington; Brandon Kimber, 29, Price; and Gary Jensen, 48, Price. Six other rescue workers were injured and hospitalized.

On Aug. 19, Mine co-owner and vice president Rob Moore, in a press conference after meeting with families, said of the original six miners trapped, "It is likely that these miners will not be found."

In response, later that day the trapped miners' families broke their silence, holding a press conference attended by 75 family members. Their spokesman, Lawyer Sonny Olsen, revealed the families have been requesting the use of a rescue capsule "since day one." The capsule, which can lower a miner into the depths of the mine to look for survivors, would necessitate drilling a 36-inch hole from the top of the mine to an area where the trapped miners are believed to have taken refuge.

Speaking from a prepared statement, Olsen said, "Precious time has been squandered," and he inferred mine officials have not been listening to the families' concerns and suggestions.

At this writing, a fifth bore hole is being drilled in further attempts to locate the trapped miners, but all other rescue attempts are on hold until experts called in from across the country can develop a safer way to continue the search.

"The tension between the families and the mining company seems to fluctuate," Fr. Hope told the Intermountain Catholic Aug. 20. "The mining company has agreed to include the families in any decisions that are made regarding further rescue efforts, yet their plans to end rescue efforts now and perhaps come back later to continue mining has upset families."