Kids started going back to school here in Sauk Centre on Wednesday. No shots rang out, and nobody got killed. That, happily, is routine. But sometimes bad things happen.
Classes started last week at the Church of the Annunciation’s school in Minneapolis.
Since it’s a Catholic school, they started the day with Mass at the church next door.
Then somebody killed two of the students and injured many other folks before killing himself. The priest who was celebrating Mass made some good points in the following Sunday’s homily.
I’ll be talking about that, and somewhat-related topics:
- Church of the Annunciation: After the Killings
- Cleanup Procedures
- Heroes, Hope, and Prayer
- America: Death, Changing Attitudes, and Good News
Church of the Annunciation: After the Killings
I’m pretty sure that isn’t the Church of the Annunciation’s interior. For one thing, the altar is on what looks like an auditorium stage; and for another, photos associated with the parish’s website show a more contemporary-styled interior for the church.
My guess is that we’re looking at the Minneapolis parish’s school’s auditorium, and that they were still cleaning up the mess in their church last Sunday.
My hat’s off to Father Dennis Zehren, pastor at the Church of the Annunciation. A few days after the parish’s Wednesday morning Mass got interrupted by shrapnel, bullets, and death, he celebrated the Sunday Mass.
Remembering Who’s In Charge
A regional news service quoted some of what he said. I think it’s worth repeating:
“…[Father Dennis] Zehren fought back tears as he recounted the terror of the attack.
“‘That was the very first message we heard on Wednesday morning when that first bullet came through the window, and the voices cried out, “Down! Down! Get low. Stay down. Stay down, don’t get up,”‘ Zehren said.
“‘It’s hard for us to hear sometimes. We don’t like it there in the lowest place. But we just had to sit there and we just had to sit there in the lowest place with Jesus for a while. And we just sat there and we waited and we had to wait a while. When we were down there in that low place, Jesus showed us something. He showed us, “I am the Lord, even here. I am the one who descended down into hell. I am the one who has taken on all of the darkness and evil in this world — all the forces of death and darkness.” But together in that low place, we looked with Jesus into the eyes of the forces of darkness and death and evil. Jesus pointed and he said, “See, can’t you see how weak it is? Can’t you see how desperate it is? Can’t you see that this will never last? Can’t you see that this is not why God created us?”‘ ….”
…
“‘It reminds us, when death and darkness has done its worst, that’s when God says now see what I will do. That’s kind of the strange mystery, that in the intense darkness, the light somehow seems to shine even more brightly. We see that here,’ Zehren said.
“‘I’ve never, in all my years, experienced such an outpouring of light and love and hope.'”
(“‘Outpouring of light and love and hope’: Annunciation holds first Mass since shooting” Joe Nelson. Bring Me The News, (August 31, 2025)[emphasis mine])
My hat’s also off to folks in that parish, and their neighbors. I gather that survivors handled the attack rather well, and that their neighbors have been — acting like neighbors.
Repairing the Damage
Patching, and eventually replacing, the windows; removing broken glass and blood: that’ll be an important part of getting the parish’s Masses back in their church.
It’s also something pretty much anyone can do. Patching the windows, at any rate: replacing them involves skilled labor. So does removing bloodstains, maybe, and I’m drifting off-topic.
From what I’ve read, it sounds like the structure itself is in good shape, so repairs and restoration may be a straightforward job.
I haven’t read anything about what’s expected, but my guess is that folks at the Church of the Annunciation will have their church weatherproofed by winter.
Getting the church ready for worship again: that’s another matter.
Places of worship are special, sacred.
Someone committing murder and suicide anywhere is a ‘gravely injurious action’.
Done in a church, it’s arguably something “so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place” that worship isn’t an option “until the damage is repaired”.1 (Code of Canon Law, Title I: Sacred Spaces, Can. 1211)
A quick check didn’t show me exactly what reconsecrating a church involves. What I did find suggests that details have changed a bit over the last century or so.
That doesn’t bother me, since I appreciate differences between unchanging eternal principles and day-to-day rules that help us get our jobs done.
Something else that impressed me was that an American news outlet talked about the cleanup’s spiritual angle: and got it right.
Cleanup Procedures
We’ve been around for two millennia. Sometimes our places of worship get hit. We have procedures for dealing with this sort of thing.
Church of the Annunciation will need to undergo reconsecration ceremony because shooting brought in ‘presence of evil’” , Katherine Donlevy, New York Post (August 30, 2025)
“The Minneapolis church where two children were killed and 17 others hurt in a mass shooting will need to be ceremoniously purified before parishioners can once again attend Mass in the building.
“Even after investigators strip crime scene tape from the Church of the Annunciation, a man of God will need to perform the ‘Rite of Reparation of a Church Profaned’ before it is suitable for prayer again.
“‘The archbishop or his delegate, another bishop, will come and we consecrate the church, because there’s the presence of evil has encroached on the reality of what is a sacred space,‘ Rev. Patrick Flanagan, a professor of theology at St. John’s University, explained to The Post….”
[emphasis mine]
Again, committing murder and suicide is — by our standards — an evil act.2 Doing it in a church ups the ante.
Sometimes attackers focus their attention on our buildings and artwork. Unpleasant as that is, repairs are occasionally possible.
This time the folks who were there, worshiping, were the targets.
There’s no replacing the two kids who were killed. At least some of the survivors’ scars — physical and otherwise — those may never heal.
Reconsecrating the church won’t bring back the dead. But I think it’ll help survivors cope, adjust: and keep living. Besides, last week’s murders and suicide were “contrary to the holiness of the place”. I see it as part of the cleanup.
Heroes, Hope, and Prayer
What happened August 27 in that church was very bad.
But, as Archbishop Bernard Hebda said, hope is an option: for several reasons.
Something I noticed, tucked into human interest stories and shared on social media, was how kids who had been celebrating Mass behaved.
“… ‘It was like, shots fired and then we kind of like got under pews. They shot through the stained glass windows, I think, and it was really scary,’ [Weston] Halsne [age 10] said.
“The fifth grader was sitting two seats away from the windows, he told WCCO. He said he felt what he thought was gunpowder on his neck.
“‘My friend Victor like, saved me though. Because he laid on top of me. But he got hit,’ Halsne said. ‘I was super scared for him. But I think now he’s OK.’
“‘I hope you’re OK and I’m praying for you,’ he said in a message to his friend….”
(“Minneapolis Catholic school shooting survivor describes how friend saved his life: ‘I’m praying for you’” , Aki Nace, Caroline Cummings; WCCO News (August 28, 2025))
Someone I’m connected with on social media shared a very short video, showing older kids at the Church of the Assumption shepherding younger kids through a hallway. Or what looked like a hallway, at any rate.
Someone else roundly criticized those sharing it. Seems that showing the video was heartlessly seeking attention by using the suffering of others.
Maybe so.
But what I’ll remember is that at least a fair fraction of the older kids actively helped their younger schoolmates in a very dangerous situation. And at least one student took a bullet while sheltering another.
Calling acts like that ‘heroic’ may be an overstatement.
But I think we need reminders that, given a chance, many folks — children and adults — will do what is right.
Learning what is, in fact, right; that’s a long process.
Basically, it’s what Jesus said: I should love God, love my neighbor, and see everybody as my neighbor. That’s “the whole law and the prophets”, summarized. (Matthew 5:43–44, 22:36–40; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 6:31, 10:25–27, 29–37; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2196)
Simple, yes. Difficult, extremely. But it’s still a good idea.
About what Archbishop Hebda said: prayer is also a good idea. A very good idea. (Catechism, 2558-2855)
“‘Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God'” (St. John Damascene, De fide orth. 3, 24:PG 94, 1089C).”
(Catechism, 2590)
Prayers come in many forms:
“…Various forms of prayer are presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2623-2649). These various forms include prayer of blessing or adoration, prayer of petition, prayer of intercession, prayer of thanksgiving, and prayer of praise….”
(Prayers and Devotions, USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops))
There’s a very great deal more to say about prayer, people, and acting like both matter: but that’ll wait for another time.
America: Death, Changing Attitudes, and Good News
Bad as what happened last week was, it could have been much worse.
Somehow, the killer only managed to end two lives besides his own; and the number of wounded that’s been reported is still below two dozen. That’s appalling: but there could have been many more dead bodies in church that day.
I’m glad those ‘good old days’ are behind us.
Local, state, and federal authorities are treating the attack as a serious crime.
Obvious as that may seem, seeing Catholics as American citizens, and not threats to this country and its principles, hasn’t always been a given.
Sometimes Catholic lives have been regarded as unimportant.
From Boston’s banning of “Satanical practices” like celebrating Christmas, to the murder of Father James Coyle, presumably patriotic and devout Americans have on occasion defended their country from people like me: and enjoyed at least tacit approval of the folks in charge.3
So, yeah: I’m glad to see the killing of two Catholic kids treated as a serious crime.
Political responses I’ve seen haven’t been nearly as hysterical as they might have been, and I’ll leave it at that.
Finally, and I see this as very good news, many folks in Minneapolis have been treating their Catholic neighbors as neighbors: not a threat to their community.
Some of what’s changed since my youth has not been for the better. But I think that remembering what we’re doing right is a good idea.
I’ve talked about last week’s killings, and being Catholic in a less-than-ideal world, before:
- “Murder at Mass: and a Cartoon Character’s Insight” (September 3, 2025)
- “Catholic School Mass: Murder in the Morning” (August 27, 2025)
- “Principles, Priorities, Politics: and Being Catholic” (September 21, 2024)
- “My Church in Sauk Centre, Minnesota: Vandalized” (September 24, 2022)
- “Killing Prisoners, Valuing Human Life” (August 27, 2022)
- Code of Canon Law, Title I: Sacred Spaces (Cann. 1205 – 1243), Can. 1211
- “After a Church Is Attacked”
Father Edward McNamara, A ZENIT Daily Dispatch, ZENIT (February 10, 2010) via EWTN.com
2 Murder, suicide, and standards:
- Human life — all human life — is sacred, a gift from God
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2258) - Murder, intentionally killing an innocent person, is wrong
(Catechism, 2268) - Suicide, intentionally killing oneself, is wrong
(Catechism, 2280-2283) - It’s complicated
(Catechism, 2258-2317)
3 American viewpoints have been changing; for the better, I think:
“The Obferation of Christmas having been deemed a Sacrilege, the exchanging of Gifts and Greetings, dreffing in Fine Clothing, Feafting and similar Satanical Practices are hereby FORBIDDEN”
(Boston’s response to celebrating Christmas “and similar Satanical Practices”. (1659)
[It made sense, sort of. They believed celebrating Christmas was a Catholic invention. (Puritans>Behavioral regulations; Wikipedia])
“…Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?…”
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (May 19, 1821) via National Humanities Center)
“The attack on Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis is heartbreaking in every way imaginable. Leslie, Carter, and I are keeping the victims, their families, and everyone impacted by this horrible act of violence in our prayers.
“Nowhere in our country should anyone—especially children in church and during their first week of school—have to fear for their lives. I am closely monitoring the situation as we learn more. We stand with you, Minnesota.”
(Congresswoman Nikema Williams [Georgia’s 5th Congressional District] Statement on Annunciation Catholic School Shooting (August 27, 2025))
“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on August 27, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds….”
(Honoring the Victims of the Tragedy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Donald J. Trump, Proclamation (August 27, 2025))
A little background:
- Wikipedia
- Anti-Catholicism in the United States
- Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty
- Ku Klux Klan
- James Coyle
- Maria Monk (Author of “Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk and the Hotel Dieu Monastery of Montreal”, the perennial bestseller “considered by scholars to be an anti-Catholic hoax”)
I’ve talked about this before:
- “Independence Day, 2024: America and Context, a Short Ramble” (July 4, 2024)
- “Back from the Hospital: The Masked Minnesotan Rides Again” (October 5, 2020)
- “Spiritualism, Attitudes” (June 1, 2018)
- “London: Death, Hope, and Love” (June 4, 2017)
- “Mother’s Day, and Mary” (May 14, 2017)
