Yesterday, August 27, 2025, we received the heartbreaking news of a shooting at a school in Minneapolis. Our prayers and our hearts go out to the victims, to their families, to the teachers and students, and to the entire community shaken by this act of violence.
This happened in a Catholic school. Even with the differences in our traditions and practices, we are one in Christ’s love, and today we unite with them in their pain. We pray with compassion, we mourn with them, and we walk with them in love. For when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26).
As people of faith, we must also raise a prophetic voice. We cannot accept that communities of faith become targets of violence. We cannot accept that our children and our youth, the new generations entrusted to our care, are forced to live in fear. We lift our voices for them and with them, believing that the God who hears the cry of the oppressed also calls us to respond with courage and with mercy.
While politicians continue to debate solutions, we know that the Church has a deeper mission: to live as witnesses of peace, to address the realities that feed despair and violence, like mental health struggles, loneliness, depression, and others. We have been called to be present in the places where God has planted us. This is where we can make a difference, where prevention begins, where mercy and presence bring healing.
It is our calling to become carriers of love, of hope, and of peace. Let us be the ones who offer kind words, who share a smile, who listen when no one else will. We may never know how these small gestures can interrupt cycles of sadness, despair, and even violence.
Jesus himself said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). And the Scriptures also remind us of who God is: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8). This is the God we follow, the One who stripped away all violence toward the vulnerable, and who shows us mercy upon mercy.
Now more than ever, our society needs to return to Jesus, who is the way to the loving and merciful Father. In Him, we discover not only hope, but also the courage to resist violence and to build peace.
May God bless the victims.
May God bless their families.
May God bless us all.
And may God bless the United States of America.
Warmly,
Rev. David A Gaitan
