UPDATED: Hundreds attend special mass for deceased student, family

 There were not enough seats for the amount of congregants that gathered in the Loyola College Chapel Tuesday night.

Hundreds of students, friends, classmates and others met for a special mass to honor the life of sophomore Stephanie Parente, who was found dead in a room at the Sheraton Hotel in Towson. She was found with her father William Parente, 59, her mother Betty Parente, 58, and her younger sister Catherine, 11.

“This gathering is a sign of our solidarity and unity,” Loyola President Rev. Brian L. Linnane said. “Let’s be in this together. Let’s be the signs of hope for each other… at this time of great mourning and loss.”

He spoke of his time at Loyola and how he had become good at handling the various responsibilities his job entails as a college president and reverend. He admitted that something as shocking as the death of one of his students affected him deeply.

“It is quite legitimate to feel shaken,” he said to a solemn crowd of weeping faces.

Stephanie’s roommates took turns giving readings during the mass fighting back tears as their voices cracked at the podium. Many students denied comment because of the amount of grief they felt for their fallen friend.

Though Collin Wheeler, a sophomore at Loyola College, found the strength to express his sadness. He compared the tragedy to the devastation of Sept. 11, as a resident of Manhattan.

“This is probably one of the worst things I’ve had to deal with in my life. …This is somebody that I knew and interacted with several times a week just seeing her around campus,” Wheeler said.

“Right now I’m still in shock. I can’t even get my head around it. I just wish there was more that I could do. I just feel very helpless at this point.”

As the mass let out for the evening, the crowd gathered at the entrance of the chapel each sharing in an emotional, tearful embrace. 

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out