Cardinal Blase Cupich called on those who hold power throughout the country to “make the safety of our people a national priority” following Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school.
“Guns are plentiful and common sense attempts to limit their availability have been largely rejected in the name of a freedom not found in our constitution,” the Archbishop of Chicago said in a statement. “Cutbacks in funding for health care and social service programs will only exacerbate a national mental health crisis and increase alienation.”
Cupich’s comments came after a shooter opened fire Wednesday morning during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School, killing two children and injuring 17 other people before killing himself. Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter — armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol — approached the side of the church and shot through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews.
The children who died were 8 and 10, and 14 other children were among the wounded, O’Hara said. All the injured children were expected to survive, the chief said.
“If any place should have been safe, it should have been there. If any time should have been safe, it should have been then,” Cupich said. “Tragically, we know no place or time when Americans — even children — are safe from the curse of gun violence.”
Cupich said the Archdiocese of Chicago will join its prayers with others that those “injured in body and spirit will heal and that the murdered children will be received into heaven.” He said, however, that “we must also cry out for action to prevent even one more such tragedy.”
“We ask God to give (those in power) the courage to take the steps they know will alleviate, if not eliminate, the fear parents must feel sending their children off to school and Americans feel leaving their homes for simple errands,” Cupich said. “Surely they must be moved by these shootings. We pray that they will not see them as inevitable because then we will have certainly surrendered our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
A spokesperson for the archdiocese said all its schools have “comprehensive crisis plans” and protocols, which leaders reviewed before the start of the new school year. The spokesperson also said they have “excellent communication” with civil authorities.
Gov. JB Pritzker said on social media that Illinois is “holding the people of Minnesota closely to our hearts today.”
“The start of the school year should be a time of renewed hope, not gun violence and devastation,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
