Prayer Need: Cuban Salesian Priest dies in an accident

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Padre Héctor Rodríguez Casacó, SDB. He died in a car accident this past weekend in Cuba. Fr. Héctor studied Theology in Mexico just before me and I met him once on a return visit there. He was a very friendly and well liked person. Here is the news story from the Salesian News site:

(ANS – Santiago di Cuba) – On 22 November the Salesians in Cuba suffered the loss of Fr Héctor Rodríguez Casacó, Rector of the Santiago di Cuba community, who died following a car accident on his way back to the house.

Fr Héctor, 41 years of age was driving home after taking part in an Assembly of the Salesian Delegation in Cuba and the consultation for the appointment of the new Superior for the Province of the Antilles. At the end of the meeting he spent the night at Camagüey and left the next morning to return home.

According to the information provided by the Provincial centre, the only details of the accident were that the car driven by Fr Rodríguez collided with a lorry belonging to a building firm near Bayamo.

In communicating the sad news to the communities in the Province Fr José Pastor Ramírez, Superior of the Salesians in the Antilles recalled Fr Héctor Rodríguez as “a great person, cheerful, enthusiastic, a great worker, devoted to his people and with a sense of humour found only in a few. ”

On the day of his death, Mass was said for Fr Rodríguez in Santiago di Cuba. The following day, Sunday November, the body was taken to Havana where the funeral Mass was celebrated in the church of Saint John Bosco in La Víbora.