From our mission “Nossa Senohra da Ternura” (Our Lady of Tenderness) in Mogi das Cruzes, near San Paolo in Brazil, we received news of the sudden death of brother Peter Vitek, a Slovak (born October 18, 1976 in Bratislava), which took place on Sunday 1 May 2022 in the late Brazilian afternoon.
He was returning to the mission on a bicycle with another missionary, and was run over by a passing truck. The impact was violent and when help arrived there was nothing more to be done.
We are grateful to you all for the gift of your closeness in prayer and friendship, which helps us to welcome the painful mystery of this death in the light of Christ’s Resurrection.
We ask the God of Life to welcome Brother Peter into the endless joy of Paradise and to sustain our mission in Mogi das Cruzes, which has been tried by this event, with hope. In particular, we entrust Brother Peter’s mother, brother and family members to the consolation and tenderness of the Virgin Mary, so that even in the pain of the sudden separation they may find consolation in faith and in the memory of the abundant good that Peter, having rediscovered the meaning of life and the joy of living, has given through his life to so many.
He entered the Cenacolo Community in October 1998 in order to undertake a journey of resurrection and new life. Over the years, he matured the call to community life and the will to follow the Lord in consecrated life, which he experienced particularly during the many years of missionary service spent in Brazil. Peter loved, welcomed and accompanied the lives of children, adolescents and young people in need and in difficulty with fidelity and a smile.
We thank the Lord for his life lived in fullness: may he intercede from Heaven for his family members and for all of us! May his testimony help many young people to discover the beauty of missionary life.”
