Soldier's death should not lead to 'unholy rage,' bishop says

Published: 2006-06-30

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CNS) -- The death of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, the U.S. soldier captured and brutalized in Iraq, should not lead people to feel "unholy rage and anger," said Bishop Raymundo J. Pena of Brownsville during the June 28 funeral Mass for the soldier. During the bilingual Mass at the Brownsville Event Center, the bishop told hundreds of mourners that reacting with anger "would only dishonor Kristian's very name and Kristian himself." He said, "At this moment, we must, as he did, reach for the ideal: to work for peace and an end to conflict wherever we may find it -- at home, on the streets or even in a foreign land." The 23-year-old soldier, the son of a Mexican immigrant, was one of three U.S. Army soldiers who died after a June 16 insurgent attack at the checkpoint they were guarding. Menchaca and another soldier, Pfc. Thomas Tucker from Madras, Ore., were missing for three days before their mutilated bodies were found booby-trapped with explosives. The third soldier, Spc. David J. Babineau from Springfield, Mass., died in the initial attack.

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