Injured priest offers up his pain
Fr. Pérez promotes forgiveness

By Brian T. Olszewski, Catholic Herald Staff

MILWAUKEE — The night of Jan. 9, Fr. Eleazar Pérez was aware of the pain he was feeling. He was unloading groceries from the trunk of his car near 23rd and Scott streets when he was the victim of a hit and run accident.

“I was totally aware,” he said through interpreter Manuel “Manolo” Macias. “I said to myself, ‘O, Lord, I offer this for the suffering and pain for sick people in the world, for tsunami victims, and for victims of the war in Iraq.”

What he was not aware of at the time was that two days later doctors would have to amputate part of his left leg. They had taken a vein from his right leg in hopes that it would pump blood to the damaged limb, but it didn’t work.

“I could have lost my life right there,” the 45-year-old native of Temosachic, Chihuahua, Mexico said. “But God has a plan for me.”

Fr. Pérez was released from Froedtert Hospital Jan. 28. A week later, he was back at the hospital where skin grafts were scheduled to be done on his leg. But the surgery was postponed when doctors noticed the leg was healing naturally, which, the priest said, they attributed to the regimen of exercises that he does three times a day in his Cousins Center apartment.

Asked if it is painful to do the variety of leg lifts that have been prescribed, the priest responds with a shrug and a smile, “A little.”

Fr. Pérez came to Milwaukee five years ago after becoming the target of death threats in his home diocese. “I was crying out for justice, and against corruption,” he said of the reasons for his exit.

During his time in the archdiocese, he has ministered in the Hispanic community, working at St. Stanislaus, St. Anthony, and, most recently, St. Adalbert Parish. Since the accident, he has had time to evaluate his ministry.

“I need to change some habits,” he said. “My wish, my dream, is to put more (effort) into working with groups and with leaders. Through them, we can change the pain of the people.” He added, “It is more than empowerment; it is formation so they are ready and prepared (to minister).”

The priest holds no ill will toward the three men charged in the accident, which he attributed to “lack of experience, not being careful, and not thinking of the consequences.”

Acknowledging that people have a difficult time forgiving others, despite what Jesus taught, he said, “When you don’t forgive, you hurt twice.”

The fifth of nine children born to the late Rodrigo Pérez and the late Maria Rodríguez Pérez, Fr. Pérez addressed the Milwaukee-area media on Feb. 2 at the Cousins Center, and spoke about what the accident has meant to his life.

“I no longer speak from theories, but from experience,” he said. “As men and women, we are limited, but God fills in where science falls short.”

Speaking through his interpreter, Rosario Sanchez, the priest added, “If God is alive in your hearts, there is nothing you can’t accomplish.”

He will be fitted with a temporary prosthesis while the tissue in his leg heals. This will be followed by a permanent prosthesis on which he will be able to walk in no more than three months.

Asked when he will return to St. Adalbert, the priest replied quickly, “As soon as possible.”

Be An Informed Catholic!


For the rest of this week's news, visit the Catholic Herald web site.

Click here to subscribe to the Catholic Herald.