When it was time for the homily at an August 15 Mass to open the school year for Sacred Heart Catholic School in Uvalde, Texas, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller abandoned his prepared talk and instead had the students stand so he could speak to them directly.
Chicago-based Catholic Extension launched the first of many initiatives it has planned over the next 18 months to support Uvalde, Texas, following the devastation of the Robb Elementary mass shooting.
In many ways, Archbishop García-Siller echoes Pope Francis, who has called out the “indiscriminate trafficking of weapons” and those who treat migrants as “pawns on the chessboard of humanity” following tragedies such as mass shootings and the large-scale death of migrants.
The son of Ruth E. Whitfield, the oldest victim of the racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store, told a rally in Washington June 11 that the nation needs to “lower” its weapons and “replace the hate.”
Lamenting a “culture of death” that exists in the U.S. after three mass shootings in less than a month, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio on June 8 spoke of the need for Catholics to be leaders in reinvigorating a culture of life.
The week was set to culminate with a large March for Our Lives demonstration June 11, an event organized by students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which experienced a mass killing of its own in 2018.
In the wake of the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, “we must do more,” to address gun violence, said Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston.
Bishop Robert Brennan and the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns (VBCC) led an interfaith prayer service on Sunday, June 5, at Immaculate Conception Church for victims of the recent mass shooting around the country.
Two weeks ago, the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Sunday school classrooms were filled with catechists and students. Today, the classrooms are an outpost for Catholic Charities of San Antonio (CCSA), as the organization works alongside local clergy to do “whatever it takes” for those affected by the Robb Elementary School shooting.
More than a week after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, we are still in shock over the heinous act against innocent lives — 19 elementary school children and two teachers were slaughtered.
