Denver, Colo., May 9, 2019 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- When Sara Haynes heard about the shooting at STEM High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado on Tuesday, she prayed. A Catholic school teacher in Denver until just recently, she knew some of her former students were now high schoolers at STEM.
When Haynes learned out that Kendrick Castillo, a former student of hers, was the lone casualty in the May 7 shooting, she cried immediately.
Then she reached out to the other students who had been in the same 7th and 8th grade math and religion classes at Notre Dame Catholic School as Castillo. Details of Kendrick’s death were not yet public, but her students guessed Castillo had died trying to protect others, Haynes said.
“I went to my students and we were all just sharing together. And I said: ‘Do you guys think that he blocked the shooter?’ And they said: ‘Yeah.’ I mean, it just wasn’t a shock to us” that he would give his life for others, Haynes said.
On Wednesday, Kendick’s father, John Castillo, confirmed to the Denver Post what he had learned from witnesses and the coroner: that Kendrick died while charging the shooter to save his friends.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” John Castillo told the Denver Post. “He cared enough about people that he would do something like that, even though it’s against my better judgment.”
“I wish he had gone and hid,” Castillo added, “but that’s not his character. His character is about protecting people, helping people.”
Kendrick’s friends and fellow students share the same sentiment, Haynes said.
“Every time I see a new kid that is in shock or crying, I ask – ‘But are you surprised?’ And they say ‘No, I’m not surprised at all. I’m just mad because I didn’t want him to have to do it. But of course he was going to do it.’”
Haynes said she remembers Kendrick as an unfailingly kind student, who cared deeply about everyone, who tried hard in school, and who wasn’t afraid to have fun and be goofy.
“Kendrick is probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever known,” Haynes said. “He’s really quirky and sweet. And quiet, but not really. He’s one of those kids that he knows the appropriate time to be quiet, and then when it’s the appropriate time for him to just be a total dweeb, he’ll be a total dweeb.”
He was always joyful, Haynes said, and funny – as her trove of goofy videos of Kendrick prove, she said. The only time when he was not joyful was at parent-teacher conferences, Haynes recalled. Kendrick tried hard in school, and he loved technology and excelled at science – but math was harder for him, she said.
“He would get so serious at parent-teacher conferences because he struggled academically and…most middle school kids put blame on other people, but he just always took the responsibility so seriously that he would cry,” she recalled.
“And we would tell him, ‘You don’t need to cry! We just want you to turn in your work.’ And he’d be like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ He really was such a deep thinker even if he didn’t look like it, because he was so jolly. He had this joy that shone through.”
Sr. Loretta Gerk was another teacher who knew Kendrick while he was a student at Notre Dame Catholic School – she taught him in physical education classes, from Kindergarten through eighth grade.
“He was the neatest kid,” Gerk told CNA. “He was so kind and gentle, but yet, he was all boy too, you know what I mean?”
Gerk said that she would sometimes worry about the kind and gentle students, because they could be prone to teasing. But no one ever teased or made fun of Kendrick – he was just too likeable, she said.
“Kids are sometimes cruel to each other,” she said. “But the kids weren’t mean to him. You couldn’t be mean to him.”
“If any little kids were crying or something, he would go talk to them. He would reach out to them. He would notice those things,” Gerk said.
Gerk said when she found out Kendrick had died in the shooting, her heart and her stomach hurt. When she found out he had died trying to rush the shooter, she thought: “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”
A hunter who loved his elk hunting trips with his father, Kendrick’s familiarity with gun safety may have given him additional courage when he rushed the shooter, Gerk said.
Not only was Kendrick kind in school, but he was also a very helpful and active person at church, Gerk recalled. He would often tag along with his dad to Knights of Columbus events, Gerk said. He would usher at Mass with his dad on Saturday nights, and help serve breakfast with the Knights of Columbus during Catholic Schools week.
“Kendrick would be in the kitchen, and he had a blue apron that said ‘Knights of Columbus.’ Kendrick was in there with his dad, helping,” she said.
Cece Bedard knew Kendrick because her dad, too, was in the Knights of Columbus. In a message to CNA, Bedard said that Kendrick “loved his faith and he really loved to serve others.”
It was not just that Kendrick did one heroic act, Bedard said, but “he lived the life of a hero, always helping others to the point where I’m not quite sure what he did for himself.”
He loved his Catholic faith, Bedard said, and once told her when they were young that although he couldn’t picture himself being a priest, he thought “the way of life (of a priest) was simply beautiful.”
“He truly was a living saint,” Bedard said.
Deacon Chuck Parker knew Kendrick at Notre Dame parish, where he remembers him as an altar server and a young usher, and a favorite greeter at the doors of the church.
“If anybody could exemplify a minister of hospitality it was Kendrick,” Parker said. “Even at such a young age, he was always very kind and compassionate, very engaging with people…people loved coming in and being greeted by Kendrick.”
“You hear a lot of people say that he was really a good kid,” Parker said. “And he was really a good kid, he just really was.”
Parker, like many others, said he “wasn’t surprised” when he heard how Kendrick died, “because he was such a loving kid.”
“I was thinking about John’s Gospel where it says that there’s no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And that was Kendrick,” he said.
In religion class, Haynes said Kendrick was pensive, hungry for the faith, and always eager to play Jesus whenever they acted out stories from the Bible.
“He always wanted to be Jesus,” Haynes said. In a video from her class that she posted to Facebook, Kendrick acts out the part of Jesus, going to search for his apostles or to comfort a suffering person, blessing them with the sign of the cross and inviting them to join him.
“I have this amazing scene where he found the two apostles and they’re all kneeling in front of the camera…Kendrick is peering at the camera and then he does the sign of the cross at everyone watching. And he was so serious in it,” Haynes said.
While religion can sometimes be a difficult subject to teach junior high kids, Haynes said that whole class “was really on a spiritual journey that I just got to witness. They really wanted the faith. And they weren’t afraid to ask the tough questions and to be stuck with some of the answers.”
Haynes credits Kendrick’s parents for raising him to be a kind and faithful young man, and she urged everyone to continue to pray for them for the rest of their lives.
Now a parent herself, Hayes said that while she hopes she never has to experience the tragedy of losing a child, she wants her two boys to grow up to be “just like Kendrick.”
Because of her faith and because of how he died, Haynes said she believes Kendrick “went straight to heaven.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt.”
[…]
Cry me a river, your Excellencies. If this “freeze” were to become permanent (God willing) you might have to lay off more of your hundreds of D.C. employees, sell off your enormous headquarters, give up your frequent transatlantic jaunts and global vacations, leave your richly appointed mansions, cancel your four-star lunches and – gasp! – confine yourselves to preaching the Gospel.
Is it really a good idea for Catholic Charities, Refugee Services, etc. to be taking money from the government?Why do we do this? Where in scripture do Christ, Apostles, St. Paul, etc. look to the government to support works of charity? Why not rely on appeals and contributions from people in the pew to carry on these charitable works?
The USCCB looks like just another secular group with its hand out to get more $$$ from the government. And, can we be sure that Catholic organizations are not taking money to support wrongdoing or law breaking? as in facilitating illegal immigration?
Charlie USCCB laments the loss of the dollars because the loss will damage the word and reputation of the USCCB. If that is not hypocritically rich, what is?
Sorry Charlie USCCB. You have no one to blame for any loss of word and reputation.
You lost those when you began to take US taxpayer money to fund your ‘charitable’ ‘work.’
These self-righteous sort of bishops ought to thank God for the second chance He gives them in this state of affairs. USCCB ought to return to the mission Jesus commanded of his apostles and their successors. Jesus called his disciples and apostolic successors to a GREAT COMMISSION to preach the word among all NATIONS. Jesus did not command resettling all people of all other nations in ONE. Re-settling illegal immigrants was NOT part of the Great Commission Jesus commanded.
If The Church wishes to resettle illegal migrants, refugees, or hordes of criminally culpable illegal aliens, the government likely will not stop you. BUT For the Roman Catholic Church to ask for government assistance in its ‘work of God’ is a bark up a dry dead tree. It is the RCC asking for a hand-out from the US citizens, and the Constitution does not allow the establishment of any Church, even one which claims it may be the government’s best and most charitable ‘charitable’ arm.
Some sods really ought to get a life.
This is great news. Now that the Catholic bishops are suing the Feds, the Justice Drpartment and D.O.G.E. will be granted a discovery motion to audit the files of every diocese in the USA to determine where every dime was spent. If every diocese cannot give a full accounting for every dime handed over, then the dioceses will have to return hundreds of millions of dollars – maybe even billions. I’m hoping that every diocese is bankrupted in the process. I know for a fact that various Catholic agencies receiving money from the Feds have been politicized and are merely front organizations for the leftist Democratic Party. We can begin with CCHD.
Deacon, have you ever heard of the Single Audit Act?
The power of the government to audit churches is ordinarily severely limited. Churches do not fie 990 Forms because that is the flip side of “the wall of separation”-not as commonly believed because they adhere to 501(c)(3).
However as a government accountant (it’s sort of like being an exorcist), I can tell you all government cheese is attached to a string that ties it to the trap. The Bishops are sacrificing the right of the church to have an autonomous existence with their foolish money grab.
The Single Audit Act of 1984—Public Law No. 98-502 and its Amendments of 1996—Public Law No. 104-156, established a standardized and uniform audit process for non-Federal entities that receive and expend Federal funds to administer various Government programs and initiatives. The type of audit created by the Single Audit Act is commonly referred to as a Single Audit.
The provisions of the Single Audit Act were codified by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Uniform Guidance, Subpart F—Audit Requirements. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implemented the Uniform Guidance in Title 45 CFR Part 75, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for HHS Awards.
A Single Audit is an audit of a non-Federal entity’s financial statements and of its expenditures of Federal awards. Single Audits are conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards, Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) issued by the Comptroller General of the United States, and the requirements of the Uniform Guidance.
Thanks, Pitchfork, for sharing your exorcism expertise!
So are you saying that the Church taking government funds could be rendered totally null, void, debunkt, defunkt, and totally bankrupt if the slack noose-string between the money-cheese and the audit-trap is pulled tight?
Do you know if the USCCB’s charities–Catholic Charities, CRS, or their ilk–ever underwent audit under the Single Audit Act?
USCCB = United States Conference of Catholic Beltway Bandits. That is what they have become.
US Conference of Catholic Beltway Bandits. Oh, that’s a good one. I was thinking bureaucrats myself, and think the USCCB should be disbanded for that reason. It (USCCB) has turned out Bishops into bureaucrats.
Can pewsitters sue Catholic Bishops in civil court?
I’m half tempted to put a note in my next envelope instead of a check.
Dear Father X:
I would normally make a donation in the the amount of $XXXX for the period. Unfortunately, I believe some of this will be directed to the Bishop and the USCCB.
As I believe they are more concerned with aiding and abetting those violating the laws of the United States; and since the examination of conscience that used to be available in this Parish said adherence to civil law was part of the Fourth Commandment; and since the USCCB is has the money to litigate for the receipt of money to continue aiding and abetting those who violate the law; I will be redirecting my donations to several charities that I think are more concerned with the salvation of souls than Bishop S and his “brother Bishops” including the Bishop of Rome seem to be.
Depends . If the USCCB is suing for services already provided under contract they should be paid. If you hire a contractor to do work for you, and he does it according to the contract he should be paid. Same thing, Unfortunately not all honor contracts and so lawsuits start.