The church was full when the ground began to shake.
In Colombia, an earthquake caught worshippers by surprise in the middle of mass, just as the priest was officiating in front of the altar. The tremor gave no warning: the walls creaked, some objects moved, and panic began to emerge among the pews. That was when the priest, in a firm voice, took the microphone and said the phrase that later went viral: ‘Let’s evacuate’.
There were no screams or uncontrolled stampedes. His calm reaction made the difference between chaos and order in a matter of seconds. The video of the exact moment when the mass was stopped by the earthquake was shared thousands of times, and it still keeps raising the same question: what would you have done in his place?
