Death and Evil: But Also Light and Hope

Posted on September 6, 2025 by Brian H. Gill
Google Street View: Church of the Annunciation, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (January 2022)
Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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

Photo via Bring Me The News: Church of the Annunciation parish, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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

Screenshot from WCCO YouTube video: 'Historic Church, Damaged By Arson, Opens Doors To Public' (June 14, 2016)
St. Mary’s in Melrose, Minnesota, a few miles down the road: torched in 2016. (WCCO (June 2016))
1566 propaganda print, celebrating faith-based vandalism.
1566 propaganda print, celebrating Beeldenstorm, ‘attacking statues’: faith-based vandalism.

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.

Photo via EWTN News: vandalism at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado. '...a three-foot tall statue of St. Bernadette was knocked off its pedestal and broken in half, a three-foot statue of Our Lady of Grace was found toppled over with its head broken off, and a five-foot statue of Mother Cabrini had its 'face smashed in'....' (November 2010)
Vandalism at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado. (November 2010)

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.

BBC News: 'Peter Wang, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student.'
Peter Wang; November 9, 2002 – February 14, 2018. Killed while helping fellow-students evacuate Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida.

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

From Harris & Ewing Collection at the Library of Congress: 'Ku Klux Klan at U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.', Harris & Ewing, photographer (August 1925) and see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Rapid_growth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rallies_and_protest_marches_in_Washington,_D.C.#1900%E2%80%931949 https://www.granger.com/1032655-ku-klux-klan-parade-1925-a-parade-of-ku-klux-klan-members-i-image.html
Ku Klux Klan at U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., August 1925. A ‘good old days’ I do not miss.

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.

Branford Clarke's cartoon, from page 21 of Alma White's 'Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty;' Zarephath, New Jersey. (1926)
“Guardians of Liberty” defending America. (1926)
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:

1 Rules and a discussion:

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)
Boston Public notice banning celebration of Christmas (1659) via New Boston Post, Wikipedia
Banned in Boston: “Satanical Practices” like celebrating Christmas. (1659)

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:

I’ve talked about this before:

Posted in Being Catholic, Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Murder at Mass: and a Cartoon Character’s Insight

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Brian H. Gill
Brian H. Gill's render: United States flag at half-staff.
Remembering August 27, 2025.

One week ago today, in my state’s largest urban area, someone went to the Church of the Annunciation.

Then he killed two children who were celebrating Mass, wounded several other folks, and finally killed himself.

He’s still dead, and so are those two kids. But, happily, it looks like the folks who were wounded will live: with varying degrees of lasting consequences.

News coverage has, predictably, shifted to giving politicos and hotheads opportunities for expressing outrage: and explaining why everybody should agree with them.

There’s a refreshing lack of focus on the killer: which lets me hope that a smidgen of common sense may be filtering into America’s news media.

What little I’ve seen reminded me of something from an old movie:

“…You know, sometimes I don’t think she’s really very happy.”
(Fauna, in “Sleeping Beauty” , Walt Disney Productions (1959), from a discussion of Maleficent (Fandom))

Meanwhile, crime scene tape has been taken down around the Church of the Annunciation, and parishioners are celebrating Mass again. I’ll probably be mentioning that on Saturday. I don’t like thinking about how those folks are feeling just now.

More-or-less-related stuff:

Posted in Journal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Our First Childbirth: Memories and a Few Thoughts

Posted on August 30, 2025 by Brian H. Gill
Photo of Martin A. Couney's Baby Incubator exhibit, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Washington. (1909) University of Washington Libraries. Digital Collections see http://content.lib.washington.edu/ via Wikipedia
Helping babies stay alive, bucking the medical status quo in 1909.

When I asked our oldest daughter what she’d like me to write about this week, she suggested “stories about when each of us was born”.

Bilboq's cartoon: 'Busy Desk'. (2006) via Wikipedia
“Busy Desk”, Bilboq. (2006)

The birth of each child was an important event, at least for me and my wife, so I figured it’d be a matter of deciding which memories to pick.

Then I started poking around the labyrinthine interior of my mind.

Turns out I’ve got a few vivid snapshots, but not nearly as many details as I thought there’d be.

I’ve got a pretty good memory; apart from things like appointment times, anniversaries — fact is, I’ll be asking my wife for help with this post. It’s been decades since the mental machinery filed away those experiences.

Meanwhile, I’ll start talking about our oldest child’s birth, and see what happens.

Birth: The First Time

This was when we were living in Fargo, North Dakota. I was doing time in academia again, getting a teaching degree in English. That was in daylight hours.

At night, when the due date came, I was a temp worker — a “Kelly Girl” — thankfully, I didn’t mind the disconnect, and that’s another topic. More specifically, I was a computer operator on the graveyard shift at an implement company.

Happily, the offices were in a building near the hospital we’d picked. Getting coffee, I could look out the window and see the building. Then, when my shift was over, I’d go over and see how my wife and newborn were doing.

But I’m getting ahead of the story.

Besides practical matters, the folks who were giving our — birth preparation class? birthing class? — anyway, the ‘what to expect, what to do, and how to do it’ class.

Where was I? Birthing class, the folks who were giving it. Right. Anyway, these folks gave advice for how to get a quick response at the hospital’s emergency entrance after hours.

We could, one of them said, get close to the outside microphone and make gasping-breath sounds — demonstrating the technique. I’m guessing that it was a joke, but it did strike me as a good way to encourage liveliness.

My wife and I didn’t need to do that. Getting to the hospital and the maternity ward is one of the blurred spots in my memory, but I remember that the process went fairly smoothly.

Changes: Delivery Rooms and Fainting Fathers

Childbirth, even when everything goes right, isn’t “routine”. Not in the sense of being unremarkable. It’s called labor for reasons, and I’ll let it go at that.

Something that’s changed since my youth is who’s around when a child is born.

Back then, at least near cities, most women gave birth in hospitals. The father would be on hand, but at a distance: in a waiting room, out of the way and fretting.

That was changing, slowly, in the 1960s.1 By the time my wife and I had our first child, letting me into the delivery room was acceptable. Along with not having my wife doped to the gills so she’d keep quiet, and that’s another topic.

Grudgingly acceptable, that is. Convincing the doctor took effort.

Somewhere along the line, I learned why some doctors preferred keeping fathers out of the delivery room. Seems that too often, a father would faint: adding the task of sliding a body out of the way to an already-intense process.

I wasn’t one of the fainting fathers.

In a way, it might have been easier on my wife if I had been.

Focused

I’d known in general terms what to expect during my wife’s labor.

There was a breathing routine I was expected to remind her about during contractions. I’m not sure how much good that did. Not the breathing: my alleged help. She knew the routine perfectly well.

My wife also stayed focused throughout. Make that almost throughout. During transition, that’s when the cervix is dilated from eight to ten centimeters,2 she did cry. Briefly.

She was and is not prone to emotional outbursts. At all. Getting her to cry would be like getting Sherlock Holmes to giggle.

The medicos had been poking needles into her, and her veins were not cooperating. My wife says that during transition is not the time to play find-the-vein. I think she’s right.

Ideally, she could have voiced that opinion clearly and eloquently at the time. But, well, there was quite a great deal happening that demanded her full attention.

New Experiences and Evaporative Cooling

She didn’t, for example, tell me that I should stop leaning on her. Not until later, when our oldest daughter was out and we all had a little time on our hands.

I wasn’t one of those fainting fathers, this was our firstborn child. I was excited: and that’s putting it mildly.

Things had progressed to the point where the top of our child’s head was visible. I’d known that our heads change shape as we go through the birth canal. What I hadn’t known was what it would look like.

The first part of our firstborn I saw was the top of her head. Aside from the size and color, it looked like a walnut.

That’s what I told my wife, right then, excitedly: while leaning on her. Later, she let me know that this was not a good idea. Leaning on her, I mean. She’d have told me right then and there, but — mothers may multitask, but not during delivery.

Getting back to that first look at our newborn, her head promptly popped into a more conventional baby-shape as the rest of her came out.

At the time, something that was part of the hospital’s childbirth process was having me (carefully) hold our daughter, lowering her into a body-temperature basin of water.

I think she liked it. As soon as she was mostly-immersed, she turned her head — I think it was to the left.

Pursing her lips, she methodically extended that arm and drew it back, keeping her hand even with her shoulder. Turning her head the other way, she did the same with the other arm. My guess is that she was taking in the experience of being able to extend her arms.

Then I lifted her out of the water. She experienced evaporative cooling.3 And screamed. She still does not like that experience.

A Couple Details

I think my wife’s first close look at our first daughter was when they ‘plopped her on her belly’ and dried her off. We were both very happy about our little one, and I’ll leave it at that.

Except for another detail.

We have had, in several senses of the term, colorful babies.

When she first came out, our oldest daughter was orange. That’s not usual. The reason her head looked like a tangerine has a scary name — infantile jaundice — but it’s treatable, temporary, and not a huge problem.4

Years later, when our son was born, he was purple; until his lungs made up a temporary oxygen deficit. Again, not a huge problem.

And like I said, colorful.

Baptism of Desire, Uncertainty, and Hope

Brian H. Gill's photo: Our Lady of Angels' Marian garden. (July 2013)
Our Lady of Angels’ Marian Garden: a good place to sit and think. (2013)

All told, my wife and I have had six children. We’ve gotten to know four of them: the ones who survived.

Those four were baptized, the other two weren’t. The reason was, basically, that you can’t baptize a corpse.

About that —

Baptism matters, a lot. It makes entering the kingdom of God an option. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1214-1274)

One of our children died in what this culture calls a miscarriage, the other experienced a stillbirth: and we nearly lost my wife in the process.

I am profoundly glad that my wife lived, I still grieve for Joy and Elizabeth, and — although I realize it’s impossible — I wish they could have been baptized.

The experiences did, however, result in my learning about what the church has been saying for the last 15 or so centuries about baptism and infants.

So far, we know that baptism is vitally important; that some infants, through no fault of their own, aren’t or can’t be baptized: and we don’t know how that affects their salvation.

Maybe it’d be easier to do an opinion poll and see what most folks want to be true, but the Church doesn’t work that way.

Instead, I can remember that something like a “Baptism of desire” has been discussed: and hope that I’m right about God being good, just, and merciful. I’m pretty sure about that, I’m counting on “merciful”, and that’s yet another topic. Topics.

Here’s a sample of what I found:

“…the Church does not know of any other means which would certainly give little children access to eternal life. However, the Church has also traditionally recognized some substitutions for Baptism of water (which is the sacramental incorporation into the mystery of Christ dead and risen), namely, Baptism of blood (incorporation into Christ by witness of martyrdom for Christ) and Baptism of desire (incorporation into Christ by the desire or longing for sacramental Baptism). During the 20th century, some theologians, developing certain more ancient theological theses, proposed to recognize for little children either some kind of Baptism of blood (by taking into consideration the suffering and death of these infants), or some kind of Baptism of desire (by invoking an ‘unconscious desire’ for Baptism in these infants oriented toward justification, or the desire of the Church). The proposals invoking some kind of Baptism of desire or Baptism of blood, however, involved certain difficulties….”
(“The hope of salvation for infants who die without being baptised” , International Theological Commission (2007)[emphasis mine])

I’ve talked about some of this, and how I see changing attitudes about infants, before:

1 Some changes have been for the better:

2 Took a little effort, but I found a brief description of transition in labor:

3 Details:

4 Baptism of desire (hope is an option):

Posted in Being Catholic, Family Stories, Journal, Series | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Catholic School Mass: Murder in the Morning

Posted on August 27, 2025 by Brian H. Gill

Two children, ages eight and 10, went to school this morning.

They won’t be going home.

Somebody decided that this would be a good morning to spray bullets into a church full of people. Why the 20-something (probably) man made that decision is an open question, and may remain so. He killed himself after committing murder.

This happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, near West 54th Street, where it becomes Diamond Lake Road. (Google Maps)

That’s the gist of what I saw in the news around noon today:

“Two children are dead, two other children are in critical condition, and a total of 17 people are injured following a Wednesday morning shooting at Church of the Annunciation in southwest Minneapolis, according to police.

“Police say the shooter, a man in his 20s, opened fire during an all-school mass held at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, when dozens of Annunciation Catholic School students and other worshippers were gathered in the adjoining church….

“…During a news conference, MPD Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were killed and two other children are in critical condition. He said 17 people were injured, in addition to the children who died….”
(“Live updates: 2 children killed, 17 injured as shooter opens fire at Minneapolis church” , BringMeTheNews (August 27, 2025))

“…’This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping,’ [Minneapolis Police Chief Brian] O’Hara said. ‘The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children, it’s absolutely incomprehensible.’ …”
(“Annunciation Church Minneapolis: What’s known about shooting suspect” , Megan Ziegler, FOX 9 KMSP (August 27, 2025))

“…Dating to 1923, the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school had an all-school Mass scheduled at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to its website. Monday was the first day of school….”
(“Annunciation Church school shooting: What we know about the victims” , Chris Williams, FOX 9 KMSP (August 27, 2025))

I’m not, putting it mildly, happy about this. I’ll probably be angry, as soon as the disgust I’m feeling eases off.

As for what I think about what happened:

  • Human life is precious, a gift from God
  • Murder is a bad idea and we shouldn’t do it
  • Suicide is a bad idea and we shouldn’t do it
  • Attacking places of worship isn’t nice

I’ve talked about that, emotions, and trying to make sense, before:

Later: 3:00 p.m. CDT, 20:00 UTC; August 27, 2025

It’s early days, a few items about the person who committed murder and suicide are popping up.

My guess is by tomorrow news coverage, if it continues, will focus on the weapons used, rather than the perpetrator’s possible motives.

I’m also guessing that he was not thinking straight: or maybe was under the impression that the Catholic Church is part of a Jewish plot. That’s assuming that any thought was involved.

Anyway, here’s a sample:

“…posted two YouTube videos, one ten minutes and the other twenty minutes long, showing writings that reference suicide, depression, ‘extremely violent thoughts and ideas,’ as well as an apology addressed ‘to my family and friends’ and a drawing of the layout of a church. A video also showed a number of guns, bullets and magazines. Messages were written on the guns, including antisemitic, and racist phrases and a message saying ‘Kill Donald Trump’. The channel was taken down shortly after the uploads….[33][34]”
(Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, Wikipedia (copied August 27, 2025) [33 “Alleged attacker uploaded videos earlier today”. BBC News. August 27, 2025. Retrieved August 27, 2025.][34 “Suspect identified as Robin Westman, multiple sources say”. NBC News. August 27, 2025. Retrieved August 27, 2025.])

Posted in Journal | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

A Stained Glass Window, a Baron, Initiative and Rules

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Brian H. Gill
Google Maps: Liechtenstein (upper right) and Sion, Switzerland, (lower left).
Liechtenstein (upper right), Sion (inset, lower left); north side of the Alps.

It’s been about a half-century since I worked for the Red River Valley Historical Society. Articles I wrote for their Red River Valley Heritage Press are in the MSMM Archives, and that’s another topic.1

Something I liked about that historical society is that it focused on what I think of as my ‘home turf’: the Red River Valley of the North. It’s some of the flattest land, and best farmland, on the planet.

When it’s mentioned at all, it’s in the context of 19th century treaty violations. Or the latest spring floods.2 And I’m drifting off-topic again.

The point is that while I was working for that outfit, we had a meeting with folks in Winnipeg, Canada — and got a tour of one of Winnipeg’s old houses.

After a half-century, all I remember about it — in any detail — is our tour guide’s account of how a stained glass window narrowly escaped destruction.

I don’t remember his name. But I do remember that somewhere along the line he said that he was, thanks to his ancestors, the 12th baron of Shaan. Or maybe Schön — there are a few places in Liechtenstein and Switzerland with names like that.3

He described the ‘barony’ as a few blocks in some town: his title gave him no economic benefit, but allowed him a few minor ceremonial perks. Which may explain why he was living in Winnipeg.

Anyway, here’s what he told us about his interest in a particular stained glass window.

Initiative, Theft; Tomayto, Tomahto

A few years earlier, this historic building had been in bad shape. Worse, from the viewpoint of folks who were trying to restore it, it was scheduled for demolition. I don’t remember details, but I think there was a hold-up in transferring ownership.

Was tearing the house down a good idea? Depends on how you look at it.

It might have been more cost-effective to tear the old wreck down and replace it with something blandly contemporary.

But Winnipeg would have lost one of its historic landmarks, and a beautiful stained glass window would have been destroyed.

Octavio Alonso Maya's photo: the Gran Vitral Tiffany del Hotel Ciudad de Mexico (ca. 2012) via Wikipedia, used w/o permission. See https://web.archive.org/web/20161024202757/http:/www.panoramio.com/user/5358119?with_photo_id=80130778
Gran Vitral Tiffany del Hotel Ciudad de Mexico
(Great Tiffany Stained Glass Window at the Hotel Ciudad de Mexico). Octavio Alonso Maya’s photo.

Considering the value folks put on stained glass art, that last bit — destroying a work of art — struck me as odd.

My guess is that someone figured there wouldn’t be enough profit in having the window removed and sold.

I think spending time and materials to preserve the window would have been a good idea. But I’m emphatically not involved in urban development.

Although I think life’s financial side matters, I also think there’s more to life than a high profit margin. Much more.

Seizing an Opportunity: and a Window

As our guide told it, with one day left before demolition, he unobtrusively slipped into the condemned building, removed the window, and took it to a nice, quiet place.

Within 24 hours, the building’s ownership SNAFU got resolved and its new owners noticed that they were one stained glass window short.

Being reasonable people, they said ‘we want our window back, no questions asked’. Communication followed, and the stained glass window was returned as quietly as it had been extracted.

Was removing that window illegal? Almost certainly.

I don’t know much about Winnipeg’s, Manitoba’s, or Canada’s law. But entering a building you don’t own and leaving with one of its windows without getting permission sounds like theft to me.

Was it wrong?

That’s a good question.

Theft: Getting Technical

There are a few actions that actually are wrong. Theft is one of them.

“You shall not steal.”
(Exodus 20:15)

Okay. That’s straightforward enough.

Theft is wrong. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2408)

But — we’re talking about humans here, so it’s not quite that simple.

For starters, there’s “the reasonable will of the owner”. And sometimes theft looks like good, or clever, business. Shortchanging employees, not delivering goods or services that were paid for — basically, “theft” comes in many shapes and sizes, and it’s complicated. (Catechism, 2407-2414, for starters)

Now: was our tour guide’s removal of that stained glass window wrong?

“Legal” May Not be Right

Dick Orkin's Chickenman, fighting crime and/or evil: see superheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Chickenman http://www.the60sofficialsite.com/Chickenman.html https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,843884,00.html
“Fighting crime and/or evil”:
Dick Orkin’s Chickenman. (1966-1969)

I don’t know if it’s growing up in the Sixties, or my Irish heritage: but I’m not horrified at our tour guide’s flagrant disregard for law and order.4

Particularly since his intent was preserving the window: and that he returned it to its now-legal owners as soon as there was a reasonable chance that it wouldn’t be destroyed.

On the other hand, the odds are that if the old house had been demolished, he’d have found a buyer for the window.

Like I said, it’s complicated.

Thinking that something can be legal and still be wrong, and that doing something illegal may be right, started making a lot more sense in the Sixties.

Now that I’m a Catholic, I have to believe that what’s right and what’s legal aren’t necessarily the same thing. (Catechism, 1954-1960, 2273)

But, since I’m a Catholic, I should show obedience to, and respect for, authority. Reasoned obedience: not blindly doing whatever I’m told. (Catechism, 1900-1903, 2242-2243)

Again: complicated.

Believing that what a government says is right may be, in fact, wrong was counter-cultural in my youth. It still is.

All that’s changed are the details, and that’s yet another topic.

Detail, Gentile da Fabriano's 'Valle Romita Polyptych.' (ca. 1411)
Detail, Gentile da Fabriano’s “Valle Romita Polyptych.” (ca. 1411)

I’ve talked about natural law, principles that are part of reality; and positive law, rules that we make up,5 before:

1 Researched, written, printed, archived:

2 My homeland, from the dominant culture’s perspective:

3 A sample of what I found, looking for Shaan, Schön, or some place that sounds like that:

4 My heritage includes blood feuds and cattle raids, but neither are part of my life:

  • Wikipedia
    • Njáls saga (Burnt Njáll: ‘you can burn me alive, but you can’t make me care!’)
    • Táin Bó Cúailnge (AKA Cattle Raid of Cooley) (these folks valued their livestock)

5 Constants and variables:

  • Wikipedia
    • Natural law (Unchanging principles, laws that are part of reality)
    • Positive law (Rules we make up) (Sounds cooler in Latin: ius positum)
Posted in Being Catholic, Family Stories, Journal, Series | Tagged , , | 6 Comments