Echoing Pope Leo, American Bishops Demand Action on Gun Violence

Following the school-Mass tragedy, U.S. bishops pair grief with a policy agenda — and a call for swift action.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio comforts people after the 2022 Uvalde shooting.

After a Catholic school Mass turned into a crime scene, U.S. bishops are raising the temperature on gun reform.

In the wake of the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis — where two children were killed and 17 people injured during an all-school Mass — Pope Leo’s ally and fellow Chicagoan Cardinal Blase Cupich said the pattern is intolerable and demanded action.

“We must also cry out for action to prevent even one more such tragedy,” he wrote, arguing that common-sense limits have too often been rejected “in the name of a freedom not found in our constitution.”

Detroit’s Archbishop Weisenburger matched that shift, urging legislative action.

While calling the violence a wound to “the entire Body of Christ,” he urged that prayer be “matched by firm endeavors to end the superabundance of handguns and assault weapons.”

The moral through-line was explicit: treasure every child — and change the laws to protect them.

This is not a new posture for the bishops, but it is a sharper one.

Clergy and lay people pray the rosary outside of Annunciation School following yesterday’s mass shooting.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly pressed Congress for concrete measures: universal background checks, a federal gun-trafficking statute, extreme-risk protection orders, limits on high-capacity magazines, raising the purchase age, and a total ban on assault weapons.

Their June 2022 letter also backed closing background-check loopholes and banning bump stocks.

The Conference’s 2019 briefing reiterated the same agenda and highlighted evidence that ERPOs (Extreme Risk Protection Orders) and handgun licensing reduce deaths.

State Catholic conferences, including Minnesota’s, have echoed these priorities and weighed in against “stand your ground” expansions, as well as in favor of stronger screening and safety provisions.

In Texas, where guns are woven into the culture, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller urged his community to embrace restrictions after the Uvalde shooting in 2022.

What’s new is the context: a shooting inside a church, during Mass, at the start of a school year.

The pastoral language — prayer, grief, solidarity — now comes twinned with a legislative checklist.

It’s a call for Catholics to continue showing up in sacramental life and civic life until the laws reflect the value we place on children’s lives.

Pope Leo has long framed the issue this way: faith must move policy.

After the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, he amplified the push to go beyond “thoughts and prayers” toward action — an instinct the American hierarchy is plainly embracing this week.

The mandate from church leaders is unambiguous: pray, yes — but pass the bills.

Open the corridors of care and close the loopholes that keep fueling the next headline.

Letters from Leo exists to follow the Church’s public witness when it meets our civic life.

Today, that means listening to U.S. Church leaders who grieve with families and press for concrete steps to reduce gun violence — and keeping that story in view after the headlines fade.

Our work here is simple: report stories clearly, keep attention on the people and issues that matter, and track the policy debate until it yields change.

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