BREAKING NEWS 12:13PM – A man, identified as Luis Carlos Badilla Delgado, 66, committed suicide this morning at the altar of the Basilica de los Angeles, in Cartago.
Based on witness accounts, the man arrived at the Basilica around 10:00am and in traditional style, made the distance from the entrance to the altar on his knees, where he then sat in the second row, took out his revolver, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The sound of gunfire reverberated, alerting other faithful who were inside the Basilica and immediately called authorities.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The Basilica was closed off by agents of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) examining the scene.
Franisco Arias, pastor of the Basilica, said that Basilica will reopen on Thursday for 9:00am mass, to be presided by the Archbishop of Cartago, Jose Francisco Ulloa.
On behalf of Ulloa, his spokesman Carlos Oreamuno said: “I pray for the soul of this person, who took the sad decision to take his life.”
This is the second time that a suicide has taken place in the Basilica in the last several decades, when in 1975 a person took his own life in one of the confessionals.
I thing that could be a mighty strong statement towards the church (or it could be the person was feeling separated from God & wanted to try to “feel” closer). I hope he left someone a note or shared why he did it so they could have some closure/not feel guilty that they didn’t do enough.