mass shootings

In the spotlight: World Cup soccer, mass shootings in Virginia and Colorado, Buffalo Soldiers

“If you listen closely, you will hear the cry” for an end to gun violence “from our loved ones in our churches, synagogues, schools and now, our grocery stores,” Raymond Whitfield told hundreds gathered near the Washington Monument for the March for Our Lives rally.

Amid the multiple mass shootings that took place in the U.S. during 2019, Catholic leaders spoke out against them, urged legislators to make changes to put a stop to these actions and asked Catholics to pray and work toward possible solutions.

Our prayers are acts of solidarity with those impacted by the shootings. Prayer also gives us an opportunity to reflect, listen and discern how God may be trying to move our hearts. Prayer in the wake of tragedy can help spur us to take actions that bring healing, renewal and reform to our society.

By early Aug. 5, the death toll had climbed from 20 to 22 reported fatalities and 26 injured from what is, so far, the eighth-deadliest mass shooting on U.S. soil.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of the USCCB domestic policy committee said that “as people of faith, we continue to pray for all the victims, and for healing in all these stricken communities,” but they said the Texas shooting a week after a California shooting shows “something remains fundamentally evil in our society.”

The U.S. Catholic bishops stand with “our brothers and sisters of the Jewish community,” the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Oct. 27 after a horrific shooting earlier that day in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

Our society is failing to get to the bottom of the issues and unless we address these problems with an eye to the whole of the human person — a union of body and soul made for relationship with God and others — change will not come.