Church holds service for 3 students involved in deadly crash

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Members of Little Flower Catholic Church and friends gathered in prayer for the 3 students involved in the deadly crash just one street over from their church.

“The Gospel reading at Mass today was about loving God with all of your heart, might and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. So I said hey one way we can do this is really just try to love, and what situations show up in life, you know, and here’s one that showed up in my life yesterday, when right next to our church, you know, we had this horrible accident,” said Father Terrence M. Coonan, Pastor of Little Flower Catholic Church

Father Terry organized a prayer service for the 3 Notre Dame students involved in the tragic incident.

Notre Dame freshman Olivia Rojas and Valeria Espinel were killed after being struck by a car off of Ironwood Road.

The third student, Eduardo Calderon, is in critical condition at Memorial Hospital.

Father Terry said he made the decision to pray during this morning’s mass when he reflected on the parable of the good Samaritan.

“Since I just didn’t want to be like the priest who walked by the person on the side of the road, but I wanted us as a parish community to be the one who stopped and made a sacrifice for them,” said Father Terry.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.