Youth and young adults lit candles as the names of victims of violence were read aloud during a Service of Remembrance at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church the evening of Nov. 12.
The annual event — which honors and prays for victims of violence and their families — brought together parishioners, members of the clergy, religious sisters and members of the wider community.
Karen Sears shared with the congregation that on Father’s Day of 2022 her 40-year-old son, Tremont Tobin, was shot and killed by a family friend. Tobin was the father of nine children and nine grandchildren, Sears said.
“I never thought that, as a mother, I’d bury my own child … my own baby boy,” Sears told the congregation.
The murder was captured on a doorbell camera, and on Oct. 31, 2024, the man convicted of killing Tobin was sentenced to prison, she said.
Sears, who attended the service with Tobin’s oldest child, said she and her son were close; they always celebrated birthdays together.
“This service helps me feel like I’m not alone. It helps me with closure,” she said in an interview afterward.
During an opening prayer, Father George Otuma, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, told those gathered that their presence shows the issue of violence is important to them.
“Let’s take this day to pray for our healing, and make a sincere pledge to end this violence amongst ourselves. …. And let love reign,” he said.
Father William Bowling, pastor of St. Martin de Porres and Holy Name churches, led the congregation in reciting a pledge of nonviolence.
“In the name of the God of peace and nonviolent Jesus, I pledge today to live, practice, and teach the nonviolence of Jesus, to renounce violence … to love everyone as my sister and brother; to respond with love and not to retaliate with violence; to forgive those who hurt me and reconcile with everyone,” the pledge says, in part.
The service was organized by the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Office of Multicultural Ministry and the parishes of Christ the King, Good Shepherd, Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Augustine, St. Martin de Porres and St. William.
