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April 17, 2007
Emerging Heroes
As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 75-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.
Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said the son, Joe.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
At least three professors were among the victims.
This morning on CNN, I saw one young man relate how he and a classmate pushed a table against a classroom door, barring the gunnman who was trying to enter and firing shots through the door. The reporter asked him, "How does it feel to know that some people are calling you a hero." The young man, who had been speaking calmly up to that point, bowed his head, choking back emotion. "I'm just glad I was able to be there," he murmured.
A telegram from Cardinal Bertone, for the Pope:
THE MOST REVEREND FRANCIS X. DILORENZO
BISHOP OF RICHMOND (U.S.A)
DEEPLY SADDENED BY NEWS OF THE SHOOTING AT VIRGINIA TECH, HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI HAS ASKED ME TO CONVEY THE ASSURANCE OF HIS HEARTFELT PRAYERS FOR THE VICTIMS, THEIR FAMILIES AND FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL COMMUNITY. IN THE AFTERMATH OF THIS SENSELESS TRAGEDY HE ASKS GOD OUR FATHER TO CONSOLE ALL THOSE WHO MOURN AND TO GRANT THEM THAT SPIRITUAL STRENGTH WHICH TRIUMPHS OVER VIOLENCE BY THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS, HOPE AND RECONCILING LOVE.
CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Professor Liviu Librescu, God rest his heroic soul. He was a true man.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Apr 17, 2007 8:45:03 AM
No doubt people will have already noted the irony of Virginia Tech having declared itself a "gun-free zone" in 2006. There was a similar vogue in the 1980s of various places, most of them on the west coast of the U.S. (or boroughs of inner London) declaring themselves "nuclear-free zones." Precisely what difference this was supposed to make in the real world was never entirely clear to me.
Posted by: Blind Squirrel at Apr 17, 2007 9:41:18 AM
There is no greater love, than to lay down one's life for others. I can only pray that his family will receive God's comfort - for his soul certainly rests in heaven.
The good professor survived one evil to confront another - and in doing so vanquished both.
Posted by: Right Wing Toledo at Apr 17, 2007 9:43:46 AM
As my Jewish friends would say, "alev hashalom", may he rest in peace.
Posted by: Patricia Gonzalez at Apr 17, 2007 9:48:50 AM
Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
RIP Professor Librescu and all the victims.
Posted by: Rick Lugari at Apr 17, 2007 9:49:03 AM
May the State of Israel declare him a Righteous Person, and plant a tree in his name in Jerusalem alongside those that grow for Oskar Schindler and others.
Posted by: marco frisbee at Apr 17, 2007 10:07:18 AM
Whosoever saves one life, saves the world entire.
Posted by: Joe at Apr 17, 2007 11:41:55 AM
He looks like a gentle and kind man. May God rest his soul - and in his heroic act, I am certain God has drawn him to Himself in love. What he did is the meaning of love, is the meaning of Christ.
Posted by: Aimee Milburn at Apr 17, 2007 12:46:49 PM
May this courageous man rest in peace. Men like him give us hope. My condolences the families of all of the victims.
Posted by: Lynn at Apr 17, 2007 12:49:03 PM
Just wondering ... but WHO SENDS TELEGRAMS anymore?
May God bring comfort to all those in pain from the shootings at Va Tech in my state of Virginia.
Posted by: Kirk at Apr 17, 2007 5:04:35 PM
When I heard about this professor's sacrifice, I imagined him leaving the camp in Germany wondering what his life was going to be about now that he had survived the Nazis...
Fr. Philip, OP
Posted by: PNP, OP at Apr 17, 2007 11:03:45 PM
My parish is in the Diocese of Richmond and a lot of people are VT alumni or parents of current students. We are having a special mass this week.
Posted by: Jennifer at Apr 18, 2007 8:29:54 AM
God bless Professor Librescu.
When I think about this incident I can't help thinking about my own students, who I feel sure if confronted with a horror like this would tackle the guy en masse and beat the c--p out of him. Admittedly all my students are men, but still I can't figure all the running and jumping out of windows at Virginia Tech. by able bodied young people.
Posted by: David Kubiak at Apr 18, 2007 11:43:32 AM
Mr. Kubiak
By all accounts this Cho was a hard case who knew how to handle firearms. A 9mm can hold up to 17 rounds. That's 17 wounded, perhaps dead, individuals. Rushing a proficient armed individual, especially from any distance greater than a few feet, is suicidal.
Don't forget the professor held the door closed while the students escaped. He was killed by rounds through the door. Cho tried the same tactic against the room with the barricaded door. Luckily the students there were not in front of the door, but holding the table from each side of the door, so the bullets failed to find a victim.
The only cases where a school shooting have been stopped by victims have been in the cases where other students, who were licensed concealed weapon carriers used their own weapons to stop the shooter. A terrible state of affairs.
Posted by: TerryC at Apr 18, 2007 1:03:07 PM
