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At Annunciation Church, shots ended young lives and left a grieving community clinging to faith and hope.
The shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis has stunned the nation. During the opening school Mass, gunfire from outside the building killed two children and injured many others. Kids and families who had gathered for prayer suddenly found themselves living a nightmare.
The dismay is hard to put into words. How could such violence strike in a place so sacred? A church should be where children are safest, where parents feel at peace, where everyone can turn their hearts to God without fear. That sense of security has been deeply shaken.
Moments like this leave people unsettled, and not only in Minneapolis. It is natural to wonder: If even church is not safe, where can we go?
Certainly this is a question many of our brothers and sisters face every Sunday in lands where the Church is persecuted and where terrorism is frequent. News reports over the last several years have often brought us the horrifying accounts of congregations ambushed precisely while they were at prayer (for example, just last month in DRC). Priests have been killed at Mass, from St. Oscar Romero to Fr. Hamel in 2016.
Some could feel tempted to stay away from Mass, to avoid the place where tragedy struck. Yet it is precisely here, in this place of fear and sorrow, that the Church offers the very thing hearts need most.
Continued below.
The shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis has stunned the nation. During the opening school Mass, gunfire from outside the building killed two children and injured many others. Kids and families who had gathered for prayer suddenly found themselves living a nightmare.
The dismay is hard to put into words. How could such violence strike in a place so sacred? A church should be where children are safest, where parents feel at peace, where everyone can turn their hearts to God without fear. That sense of security has been deeply shaken.
Moments like this leave people unsettled, and not only in Minneapolis. It is natural to wonder: If even church is not safe, where can we go?
Certainly this is a question many of our brothers and sisters face every Sunday in lands where the Church is persecuted and where terrorism is frequent. News reports over the last several years have often brought us the horrifying accounts of congregations ambushed precisely while they were at prayer (for example, just last month in DRC). Priests have been killed at Mass, from St. Oscar Romero to Fr. Hamel in 2016.
Some could feel tempted to stay away from Mass, to avoid the place where tragedy struck. Yet it is precisely here, in this place of fear and sorrow, that the Church offers the very thing hearts need most.
A shelter when hearts are shaken
Continued below.
After tragedy: Why going to Mass matters more than ever
At Annunciation Church, shots ended young lives and left a grieving community clinging to faith and hope.
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