Orlando, Fla., Apr 4, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Ivan Jose Baez was 24 years old. He lived the last two decades full of anguish and resentment at the abandonment of his father. A few weeks ago he decided to go with his mother to see “The Passion of the Christ,” not expecting that the movie would bring him back to the faith and help him to forgive his father, just in time before going home to God.
In a moving letter sent to CNA from his home in Orlando, Florida, Maria Zamora Echevarria of Puerto Rico told the story of her son, the shock of his unexpected death and the surprise of learning that he died in peace.
“For more than 20 years I saw my son Ivan Jose suffer and cry with anger. He was a man who had to be a son, a brother and a father to take of mi and his two little brothers. His heart was tormented by hatred for his father, who abused us and left us when he was just a small child,” writes Maria.
Ivan Jose was baptized Catholic and his mother raised him in the faith, but “he completely wandered away from t he Church and didn’t want to talk about it.”