In the hours following the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church during an all-school Mass Aug. 27 in Minneapolis, a wave of shock reverberated and traveled a few miles to Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, a Catholic high school that is close in proximity and strong in solidarity with Annunciation.
Father Mike Tix, school chaplain at Holy Angels, said leaders at Holy Angels immediately engaged in ways their school could help Annunciation’s community, both school and church.
That afternoon, a school-led prayer service was held in Holy Angels’ gym, and school leaders spoke individually with ninth graders who had gone to Annunciation the year before as eighth graders to help them deal with the tragedy.
In the evening, the school hosted a prayer service led by Archbishop Bernard Hebda and attended by Auxiliary Bishops Kevin Kenney and Michael Izen, Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation, and Deacon Kevin Conneely, who serves at Annunciation. Both Father Zehren and Deacon Conneely were in the church when the shooting occurred.
“Annunciation (school) is a major feeder — and has been for many years — into Holy Angels,” Father Tix said. A news release by Holy Angels noted that a partnership between the two schools was formed more than 90 years ago and that 85 current Holy Angels students previously attended Annunciation.
“The connections that we have with their families and the students who continue their Catholic education with us at AHA run deep,” the news release said. “Like so many in previous generations, these students and their parents have enhanced our community in immeasurable ways. We here at AHA are heartbroken over the tragedy that occurred.”
As school began the next day, decisions had to be made about school activities, including sports. An important one was the football game scheduled for Friday. It would be the season opener and at home, but just two days after the shooting.
What to do? School leaders, including Principal Heidi Foley and President David Sorkin, discussed the game and whether it should be played. They asked the same question about keeping the school open. In the end, leaders answered yes to both.
“We felt like we wanted kids to be together,” Foley said, “and take a step in the direction of getting back to a routine and being together.”
The game against Byron was kept on the schedule, but with some intentional twists. The first was having the football team run onto the playing field right before the game carrying an Annunciation banner. Underneath the school banner was an important word: hope.
Fans took notice as they saw the players with the Annunciation banner, and cheering voices from the stands created “a deafening roar,” Father Tix said. Many people at the game wore green, which is part of Annunciation’s school colors, and some parents from Annunciation school attended the game, Father Tix said.
“It was pretty amazing,” said Father Tix, who brought the crowd to hushed silence when he stood at midfield to lead everyone in prayer before the game. “You could have heard a pin drop at that (point),” he said. He recited a prayer written by Deacon Bruce Richards, head of school at St. Joseph Catholic School in Waconia.
Despite the inspirational events before the football contest, “it was a tough game for those guys to play,” Foley said. “Our head coach, Jim Gunderson, really tried to get the boys in a good frame of mind and play their hardest, but they were all playing with a heavy heart.”
Father Tix, in his 24th year as school chaplain at Holy Angels, also felt sadness. He has performed weddings and baptisms for people with children at Annunciation school. Like others in the Holy Angels community, he will rely on the strength that has been built over decades at the school.
“It’s a tight-knit community,” he said. “It’s grounded in a deep level of faith and compassion. And that’s the thing that’s helping (the school) be able to work through as best as it can right now.”
For Catholics outside of Annunciation and Holy Angels, Father Tix has simple advice, which he heard from the late Pope Francis during his pontificate.
“It’s just being able to listen to one another,” Father Tix said. “It goes back to the witness that Pope Francis would often talk about: Encounter, engage and accompany.”
