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MURDERED HOMELESS MAN ‘NOT HOMELESS ANYMORE’
The pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in East New York said William Pearson, Jr., a homeless man murdered at the foot of a statue of the Blessed Mother in front of the rectory, was “not a homeless anymore” in his homily at the funeral Mass Monday.
Incarnate Word Father Marcelo Navarro said Billy, as neighborhood people called the popular dead man, was “in our Father’s house---a better place for you than this world was.”
He called the Mass “a tribute of a community gathered in prayer to pay respects to one of its own.”
At the same time, he said, “as we gather around the Eucharistic table of the Lord, we are a community that prays for forgiveness and conversion. We believe in that and we work for that.”
Pearson died in the early hours of June 17. Father Navarro heard his screams and called 911 in what he called “a desperate attempt to stop” the beating that led to Pearson’s death. Two teenagers were charged with the murder.
“This is not anything you can recover from easily,” the pastor said. “It is spinning in your mind over and over again, and it will be there for quite some time: one of the recollections that will die when you die.”
Father Navarro, an Argentinian priest who has served at St. Gabriel’s for six years, the last three as pastor, said Pearson ate regularly at the parish soup kitchen, where “many volunteers were more than glad to serve him, as well as many others.”
In his homily, he asked the congregation of about 200 to pray for the repose of Pearson’s soul and for his family, “but also---and especially---for the perpetrators of the atrocity that took place here. They, more than anyone else, I guess, are in need of our prayers for a deep conversion.”
Father Navarro directed “a very special thought” to the families of the two young men charged with the crime. “I imagine how horrible they must feel now, especially their mothers. I want you to know. . .that we are also praying for you from the bottom of our hearts.”
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