Baltimore priest responds to fatal accident near church, Catholic community reaches out

As Father Evan Ponton was preparing to celebrate daily Mass at Shrine of the Little Flower in Northeast Baltimore Feb. 21, he heard a big boom and a car horn and realized that an accident had happened out front.

“I went out the door and it took me a minute to get my bearings and realize it was really bad,” he said Feb. 23. He also realized he was the first person on the scene in the 3500 block of Bel Air Road. According to the Baltimore Banner, a Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman said that investigators believe one car hit three others.

Father Ponton noticed that there was a child in a car seat in the back of a severely crumpled vehicle. The child was moving and had blood on him, but seemed to be trapped. The priest worked open the door and pulled out the child, placing him on the grass in front of the church.

He also saw in the car that a woman, later identified as Sharon Worsham, 68, the child’s grandmother, was trapped. He also found in the street the body of another child, later identified as 9-year-old Xavier Dukes. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, according to reports.

By that time, neighbors were starting to come out. Father Ponton ran into the church to find a cloth to cover the body in the street. 

“The first cloth I found was one that had been draped over a crucifix for Lent,” he said, of the custom of covering crucifixes and other images during the penitential season. He said it was somehow appropriate that the purple cloth that had covered the image of Jesus was now used to provide some dignity for the victim.

He said he did a little bit of crowd control “to maintain some calm and some respect for the situation” until emergency vehicles arrived.

He said ministry was not his first thought as he pulled the child from the car. “It did dawn on me when I placed the linen over the body.”

He noted that he did not know then whether the family was Catholic, and that in any case, the church does not administer last rites for those who have already died, but he did think of some prayers he could offer.

“My ministry in that case was prayer and trying to provide some calm and confidence in a profoundly chaotic moment. We call this a ministry of presence – a phrase we use often,” Father Ponton said. He started with asking himself how he could help with any physical needs, and went from there.

Shrine of the Little Flower is located at the apex of Bel Air Road and was sometimes referred to as “the cathedral on the hill.” 

“It’s very prominent. There’s a bus stop there,” he said. “It really stands out as a landmark.”

In the days since the accident, he has had some time to reflect and get ready for his homily this weekend, when the Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Lent will be Mark’s account of the Transfiguration.

In that passage, Jesus takes his disciples to the top of a hill on a beautiful day, but then Jesus foretells of his coming death and Resurrection.

Father Ponton said his experience responding to the accident was a “transfiguration moment,” experiencing the shadow of death, but “God’s light is also there,” he said.

He noted that Peter says in the Gospel reading, “Lord, it is good that we are here.”

“That’s been a profound line for me to pray with in a tragic situation, this dark moment. I’m glad that I was there at that moment, not as being a hero or a saint. I’m just glad that I was here at that moment and could provide a little ministry, prayer and calm,” Father Ponton said.

He said eight students from nearby Catholic High School of Baltimore also witnessed the accident and its aftermath. He spent some time at the school the day after the crash to talk with those students and help them process it.

The parish also helped its neighborhood address the impact of the crash, with a prayer breakfast and Mass Saturday, Feb. 24. 

The breakfast had been scheduled for several months, because the Lumberjack Club from Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, where Father Ponton previously served as chaplain, had made plans to come to serve pancakes to those in need at the Little Flower campus. 

The Lumberjack Club, Father Ponton said, is a fun club for some of the students to “wear flannel and make pancakes,” and they had contacted him last fall about providing pancakes for people in need in the city. The event had to be rescheduled from last fall to the February date.

The breakfast, organized by Spalding student Patrick Kiely, was open to anyone from the neighborhood for some community healing. Neighbors and other students attended. Father Patrick Carrion, Shrine of the Little Flower pastor, celebrated Mass, and Archbishop William E. Lori greeted people at the breakfast and offered encouragement.

Father Ponton said the breakfast was a way for the people of God to be with one another, to love their neighbor in the midst of great tragedy. 

“When we can’t answer the ‘why’  question, all we can do is offer our prayers, food and presence to each other,” he said. “There’s nothing better we can do. When the church works the way it’s supposed to, this is what happens.”

He said he later found out that the woman who died was the member of a church led by the Rev. Tim Tooten, who happens to be a friend of his from the time when they both studied at the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park. 

Father Ponton said one of the things he discussed with Rev. Tooten is how to give the family time and space to grieve, including giving them some privacy. 

He and Rev. Tooten, pastor of Harvest Christian Ministries, have been talking about ways they can continue to be in conversation together.

Father Ponton said the timing of this accident was poignant, in that exactly three years ago, during the same week as the feast of the Transfiguration and his first year as a priest, he celebrated his first funeral for someone who died by suicide, in this case, a high school student. “It was one of those ‘coming of age’ moments as a priest. I feel something similar in this situation.”

He said these two life-changing moments as a priest, centered in tragedy, were opportunities for him to “emotionally and spiritually process the ways God has so graced me with these moments to be with families and communities in times of really profound sorrow.”

Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org.

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