Spirit Daily
Prayer need: two major Marian devotees die
Reyes Ruiz
We have been informed, sadly, of the deaths of two great friends of the Blessed Mother. In the Phoenix area, Reyes Ruiz, husband of well-known seer Estela, whose apparitions began in 1988 while he was visiting Medjugorje and Estela, an educator, was home, died Sunday morning at about one a.m. Arizona time after a long and heroic bout with prostate cancer. It is difficult to describe the courage of this man, who lived with cancer for years while continuing full speed on projects to build a school for the poor and evangelize in various far-flung parts of the world. When asked how he was doing, he always replied, "Like a champion!" And even when we spoke to him a little over a week ago, he had no complaints, except to say it was getting a bit rougher. At the time, he was under last-stage hospice care. His concern was for his wife, whom he loved so dearly and escorted all over the U.S. on speaking engagements during the 1990s.
Reyes, you were and are a hero -- an example of love. We pray for you. Please pray for us.
Another important figure on the Marian scene, Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo of Los Teques, Venezuela, died the same day. He is known as the Church official who formally approved the apparitions site of Betania, Venezuela, associated with seer Maria Esperanza, whose son-in-law Carlos Marrero Bornn writes:
Dear Michael, first of
all, receive my motherīs blessings and the love and warmth of the family for you
and all yours. Yesterday we sent you an e-mail to inform you about the death of Mons.
Pio Bello Ricardo. We thought you may want to publish this in your web. He died
on July, Sunday 27th, at approximately 9:00 a.m. while he was stepping out of
his car to attend a group of people who were waiting for him to be confirmed in
their Catholic faith.
My Mother and father-in-law and the whole family will attend to the funeral this
afternoon, at Los
Teques Cathedral. He
will be buried tomorrow.
This has been a quite difficult moment for Mrs. Maria Esperanza due to the fact
that he was very close to the family and played an incredibly important role in
approving the apparitions of Our Blessed Mother in Betania, a fact
that remains untouchable in the beautiful Pastoral Letter that he wrote, to
leave a clear and profound testimony of all the process that was followed, to
study the supernatural phenomena in Betania.
Mrs. Maria Esperanza de Bianchini, Mr. Geo Bianchini and the whole family ask
for the prayers of the faithful for the soul of this wise, special and wonderful
Monsignor.
[editor's note:
Reyes played the voice part of Bishop Pio Bello as the narrator for a Betania
documentary]
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