Two Catholic teens among those killed in Southeast tornadoes

Published: 2007-03-09

ENTERPRISE, Ala. (CNS) -- Mourners gathered under the badly damaged roof of St. John Church in Enterprise March 7 for the funeral of Jamie Ann Vidensek, 17. Two days earlier Michael Bowen, 16, was buried after Catholic services at the Main Post Chapel of Fort Rucker, the U.S. Army helicopter training facility outside Enterprise. Vidensek and Bowen were two of the eight students killed March 1 when a tornado struck Enterprise High School, collapsing the roof and walls of a hallway where students and teachers had gathered for shelter. Bowen, who was active in the school band and athletics, had been an altar server at Our Lady of Loretto, the Catholic parish at Fort Rucker. Kitty Buck, a teacher, described Vidensek as "one of those kids you just loved." Father James E. Dane, St. John's pastor, told the mourners that "I can't give you answers" to the tragedy that struck the town. "I can give you promises from God's word, promises that he will be here for us and guide us," he said, according to a report on the funeral in the Enterprise Ledger, the southeastern Alabama town's daily newspaper.

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