In a letter to parishioners, St. Francis Xavier pastor Father Nate Meyers said, "The attack upon the people at the Allina Health Clinic strikes at the very core of our humanity and the security that each person rightly deserves in accord with his or her dignity as a child of God."
Reacting to "the horrific mass shooting" that took place early Dec. 6 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Bishop William A. Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee said the "tragedy in our diocese is truly heartbreaking."
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez asked Catholics of the archdiocese to pray with him for the victims of the Nov. 14 shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Catholic leaders across the United States reacted with sorrow and "heavy hearts" to a mass shooting in west Texas Aug. 31 that authorities said claimed seven lives and wounded 25 others.
In this American age of violence, where 165 shootings happened this year alone, where politicians scream at each other across the aisle about gun laws and Second Amendment rights without even the common ground of mutual respect, religious leaders, scholars and TV personalities alike notice a more insidious problem with American culture.
As residents of El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, mourned the loss of 31 people in mass shootings Aug. 3 and Aug. 4, the Knights of Columbus honored a teen who died in May trying to save the lives of his classmates during a shooting at his suburban Denver high school.
Hundreds gathered late July 29 at St. Mary's Church for a bilingual prayer service, invited by Gilroy's Catholic community "to come together and pray for all those affected by the senseless tragedy."
Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond celebrated Masses at St. Gregory the Great and St. John the Apostle churches in Virginia Beach June 2, two days after 12 people were killed in the city’s Municipal Center.
Pope Francis expressed his closeness to and prayers for the victims of a shooting at a Catholic Church in Burkina Faso, which claimed the lives of six people.
