virginia tech victims

Arlington Catholic Community Mourns Loss of Local Students

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 4/26/07)

Six of the victims of last Monday’s shooting at Virginia Tech were from Northern Virginia, and at least three were Catholic. Reema Samaha, 18, of Chantilly and Mary Read, 19, of Annandale were parishioners of Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek-Catholic Parish in McLean and St. Mary of Sorrows Parish in Fairfax, respectively. Daniel Cueva, 21, and his mother, Betty, of Woodbridge had been attending Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Lake Ridge.
On Saturday Father Joseph Francavilla, pastor of Holy Transfiguration Church, celebrated a Memorial Mass for Samaha, a 2002 graduate of St. Timothy School in Chantilly at St. Timothy Church at 1 p.m. Her funeral followed on Monday at Holy Transfiguration. A funeral Mass for Read was celebrated on Tuesday at St. Mary of Sorrows at noon, and a Memorial Mass for Cueva was celebrated on Monday night at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton at 7:30 p.m.
Patricia Kobrya, principal at St. Timothy School, taught Samaha fourth-grade science.
“There cannot have been any young lady sweeter,” Kobrya said. “She was a wonderful student, kind of quiet — at least quiet in fourth grade — but she made friends easily.”
Kobrya said Samaha was well-thought-of by her peers and the community.
After the names of the victims from the Blacksburg campus were released, “the networking from our graduates about concern for the family was absolutely tremendous,” Kobrya said. “It speaks so much to the sense of community and family that St. Timothy’s creates.”
Students at St. Timothy prayed a rosary for Samaha and all victims and the student council asked immediately what it could do.
Kobrya’s sentiments were echoed by Marilyn Valatka, former principal, who remembered Samaha as “cheerful, beautiful, talented and outgoing.
“When you saw her, you just wanted to hug her because she was just a delightful child,” Valatka said. “It just breaks your heart.”
This summer, once St. Timothy graduates are back in town from college, they will have a ceremony and plant a tree in memory of Samaha, Kobyra said.
Samaha’s father, Joseph, is a 1973 graduate of Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington.
Father James Barkett, pastor of St. Mary of Sorrows, said that the parish was in shock that something “so horrendous could take place in our area and so many be affected by it.
“We want to do so much, but there’s not much we can do,” he said. “The family has suffered such a horrible tragedy.”
Read was a registered member of the Newman Center at Virginia Tech.
Father José Eugenio Hoyos, director of the Spanish Apostolate, met with Cueva’s parents, Betty Cueva and Flavio Perez, last week. He said that the couple didn’t understand why their son, who had been studying international studies with the hopes of becoming a diplomat, had been taken from them in such a violent manner, especially since they had always been good Catholics.
Father Hoyos offered the family his prayers and those of all the priests in the diocese, and will serve as a celebrant and homilist of Monday’s Mass.
“It’s my duty to be there in good moments and bad moments and this is touching each one of us in the Spanish community,” Father Hoyos said. “This is the time the Catholic Church has to show them compassion and love.”
The three other students from Northern Virginia include Erin Peterson of Chantilly, Leslie Sherman of Springfield and Maxine Turner of Vienna.
For a complete listing of Memorial Masses and prayer services go to www.arlingtondiocese.org.
Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.