Death of local student brings Virginia tragedy to Pennsylvania town

Published: 2007-04-23

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (CNS) -- The April 16 tragedy at Virginia Tech in southwestern Virginia hit home at St. John the Evangelist Parish in the quiet town of Bellefonte when Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, was listed among the 32 victims of a student gunman. "Faith takes on a different perspective, too, in these times," said Father Neil Dadey, pastor of St. John the Evangelist, the Herbstritt family's parish. "Faith becomes very real and very concrete. "I hope that his faith comforted him in his final moments. No matter what happened in those last minutes, I'm sure God was with him," the priest told The Catholic Register, Altoona-Johnstown diocesan newspaper. He said April 23 that the family planned a quiet funeral with family and close friends and that it would probably be April 25. Herbstritt, a graduate student in civil engineering at Virginia Tech, was a former altar server at St. John the Evangelist and faithfully attended church on the weekends and on holidays when he was home, said Father Dadey.

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