Pope Leo Agrees — "Thoughts and Prayers" Aren't Enough
Our children deserve a better country than this.
By now, you’ve heard the awful news — a gunman opened fire on an all-school Mass in Minnesota this morning, killing two children and injuring at least 17 more.
This unspeakable violence against innocent children breaks every human heart, but for Catholics, the setting makes it even harder to bear.
The appalling act was carried out during Mass, the summit and source of our Catholic faith.
For us Catholics, Mass isn't just a ritual. It is the defining celebration of who we are and whose we are — the most sacred moment in our lives.
Archbishop Lori said it well: “Whenever one part of the Body of Christ is wounded, we feel the pain as if it were our very own children.”
Since the Columbine massacre in April 1999, there have been over 400 mass shootings at American schools.
But as Michelle La Rosa at the Pillar points out, Wednesday’s mass shooting was the first one ever recorded at a Catholic school in the United States.
In the hours after the attack, Pope Leo issued a condolence message. Sources tell me he plans to address the tragedy further in public remarks later this week.
This isn’t a new concern for the Catholic Church.
Following the Uvalde shooting in 2022, Pope Francis called for stricter regulations on firearm sales in the United States and worldwide.
Before he became pope, Leo expressed the same sentiments.
After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the future Pope Leo retweeted this from Senator Chris Murphy: “Your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers. None of this ends unless we do something to stop it.”
He’s 100% right. Prayer isn’t the problem. Inaction is.
Our children deserve a better country than this. As long as God gives us breath, we must work to make it happen.
Thank you for this column and especially this post. And for your own words, “As long as God gives us breath…” etc. All people, whether people of faith or people of no religious faith, ought to work to stop this madness. Congress must develop the political will to pass a bill limiting the availability of firearms to all and sundry. If Congress cannot, or if the president will not sign it, then the states must begin regulating firearms sales. Other countries that have suffered school shootings have enacted firearms regulations *and the shootings have not recurred.* We must learn from them and follow suit. We must also, as a nation, develop the will to remove the assault weapons already flooding our country, before another child dies.
Yes. Our children — and we ourselves — deserve a better country.