Archbishop learned early of first responders’ selflessness

The 1976 funeral Mass of a fallen Chicago firefighter taught an altar server and future archbishop what it means to “give and not count the cost.”

That altar boy, who became Archbishop Michael G. McGovern, said the funeral and the last thoughts of the dying firefighter, Walter Watroba, vividly showed him what it means to be a man for others.

The archbishop shared Watroba’s story in his homily at an Oct. 15 Blue Mass honoring first responders. The morning Mass was held at V.J. and Angela Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha.

Watroba, according to accounts from Archbishop McGovern and others, had been battling a five-alarm fire at a Chicago power plant when a coal conveyor chute collapsed, trapping him and two other firefighters.

It took seven hours of rescue work to free Watroba, whose legs had been pinned between steel and concrete. His right leg was amputated on-site, but he wasn’t able to survive the ordeal. He died on the way to a hospital.

Watroba’s concerns before he died were not about himself, the altar boy at the funeral learned. Instead, Watroba thought about the other injured firefighters, the priest presiding at the funeral said. He knew because he had been called to the fire scene.

“How are the other men?” the dying firefighter asked the priest.

“Even as a kid, I couldn’t help but think ‘Where does that come from?’” Archbishop McGovern said at the Blue Mass. “Here’s a man who’s about to lose his leg. He’s about to lose his life. He’s about to lose his wife and three children. … And what does he ask? ‘How are the other men?’”

The archbishop said he has never forgotten about Walter Watroba’s selflessness. At the Omaha Blue Mass, he said, he was reminded of “the many, many ways” first responders put their lives on the line to keep people safe.

“I have to ask,” Archbishop McGovern said, “where does that come from?”

“I think it’s because of your family, because of how you were raised, because of your faith,” he told the police officers and firefighters at the Mass. “And it’s because of God’s grace – God’s grace being given to us that we’re able to think of others.”

Borrowing from a prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the archbishop said that first responders “give without counting the cost.”

“It’s about that love that gives itself away as we look to Jesus Christ as one Who teaches us what it means to love in such a beautiful way, passionate way,” to “give everything you’ve got for others.”

Skutt students, first responders and their family members and others filled the school’s gym for the Mass.

Police officers and firefighters who had died in the last year were remembered as their names were read and roses were placed in a vase for each person. After the Mass, many of those in attendance went outside with the archbishop as he blessed police and fire vehicles.