Prayer request: priest collapses during Mass, not expected to survive

From Washington state:

The priest at two Tacoma Catholic churches collapsed while celebrating Mass on Tuesday morning from a brain bleed and is not expected to survive.

The Rev. Michael Wagner, 48, was celebrating the morning Mass at the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary when he fell to the ground with a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and he was taken to a Tacoma hospital, where he remains Wednesday night. Wagner has served as the priest administrator at Visitation Church and Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church since last June, said Thom Ryng, the liturgy director at Holy Rosary.

Holy Rosary held a prayer vigil in Wagner’s honor Tuesday night, which Ryng said filled the church at 520 S. 30th St.

“The impact on the community has been unbelievable,” Ryng said. “At the prayer vigil that we held last night, there were people walking around in a daze, just overcome with grief. He hasn’t even been here a year.

“He’s been here nine months and he’s made such a huge impact on people.”

Well-wishers are asked to contact their respective parishes for information about Wagner’s health status. No visitors apart from immediate family and Seattle Archdiocese officials are allowed to visit him.

Wagner (pronounced VAHG-ner), as a small boy in communist Poland, asked his mother if he could become a priest, but she said he couldn’t do that because of the country’s official policy of atheism. Nevertheless, his family maintained its faith.

“He was proud of that story,” said Laurie Halte, the parish secretary at Holy Rosary. “His family remained Catholic even though they weren’t allowed to be Catholic.”

Read more. 

Our Lady of Czestochowa, pray for us now and at the hour of our death, Amen.