Evil showed its face at Minneapolis church. What can priests say to comfort the faithful? Marc Ramirez, USA TODAYAugust 31, 2025 at 7:03 AM The deadly shooting in Minneapolis unfolded with horrifying familiarity.
- - Evil showed its face at Minneapolis church. What can priests say to comfort the faithful?
Marc Ramirez, USA TODAYAugust 31, 2025 at 7:03 AM
The deadly shooting in Minneapolis unfolded with horrifying familiarity. Poisoned by extreme ideology, a heavily armed person unleashed bullets and anger on an unsuspecting population, firing through the stained-glass windows of a Catholic church where schoolchildren were gathered in worship.
As churches hold religious services this weekend, celebrants across the country are wrestling with how to help their congregations cope with and make sense of the tragedy at the Annunciation Church. What can they say to comfort their grieving flocks in the aftermath of such a shocking crime, even as they struggle with their own feelings about what happened?
"The old adage is, you must preach with a newspaper in one hand and the scripture in the other," said Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who retired in 2021. "This happens in daily life and you can't avoid it. That's where everybody's mind is, and we have to apply our faith to our daily situation."
1 / 9Mourners attend prayer vigil for victims of shooting at Annunciation Church in MinneapolisPeople line up to attend a prayer vigil at Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, Minnesota on August 27, 2025 following a shooting earlier in the day at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis.
DiMarzio and other religious leaders say in these moments it's crucial not only to remind parishioners of their faith, which teaches that qualities of love and forgiveness will endure over hate, but to emphasize the power of prayer followed by action.
"It's one thing all preachers struggle with on a Sunday," said Fr. Rich Miserendino, who serves as chaplain at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. "You get about an eight-minute window where you can try to give your congregation some consolation and remind them that good is ultimately stronger than evil, and that even in tragedies like this there are still reasons for hope."
Authorities said the 23-year-old assailant was "obsessed with the idea of killing children" and had expressed animosity in writings toward several groups, including religious ones. The FBI said it's investigating the shooting, which killed two children, as an "act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics."
A mourner prays during an interfaith prayer service held on Aug. 28, 2025, for the Annunciation Catholic Community at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after two children were fatally shot the previous day in an attack at the city's Annunciation Catholic Church.
Within their own circles, religious leaders might express hope that the assailant finds peace in divine embrace, but such messaging can be unproductive for emotionally charged congregations in the immediate aftermath of such a heinous crime.
"I don't know what other pastors will do, but I'm hoping they emphasize the Christian belief that death is not the last word and that what will endure is love," said the Rev. James Bretzke, a professor of theology at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. "If that's more than just a nice emotion that we trot out at weddings and on Valentine's Day, then it has to be tough, even when one is tempted to fall into revenge and hate."
Are prayers without action enough?
Bretzke said that while many pastors may be tempted to craft homilies around exhortations for gun control or condemnations of political leadership, it may be more productive to focus on Christian beliefs about the promise of eternal life. As he conducts services this weekend, he plans to quote from a eucharistic prayer commonly used at funeral Masses, stressing that life and love, not death, are what await the faithful.
"It's informed by St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, where he says the last enemy to be destroyed is death," Bretzke said. "It says, 'Death, where is thy sting? Where is thy victory?' And that certainly is a core Christian message."
Elaina Polding, 17, writes on a memorial cross for an eight-year-old child who was among the victims of a shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2025.
At the same time, he said, he plans to preach that more than prayer is necessary in the face of mass shootings that have become all too familiar across America.
"If we're going to pray for an end to these sorts of killings, what do our thoughts and prayers lead us to do?" he said. "It ought to lead to conversion not just of our hearts but also our actions and that we work more effectively to make our prayers come true."
Miserendino said the social shifts necessary to address the larger problem may seem overwhelming to people in the pews seeking more immediate answers. Consequently, one message he'll focus on with his student congregation is the power of a religious community to take care of its own and stop potential threats before they spiral out of control.
"We check on people," he said. "The shooter was part of a community, and I'm sure most people on campus know an isolated person. How do we be a better community for them?"
Miserendino said some priests and pastors may be tempted to try to overly explain the reasons behind the tragedy, or to call for immediate policy action. Neither is necessarily incorrect, he said.
"Any time you confront sin and evil head on, there's an unreasonableness to it," he said. "The temptation is to want to explain it with a theological argument."
Imam Matthew Ramadan addresses guests at an interfaith prayer service held Aug. 28, 2025, at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the Annunciation Catholic Community after two children were killed in a mass shooting the previous day at Annunciation Catholic Church.
Instead, Miserendino thinks it's more important to focus on supporting one's community and to let people know their feelings of helplessness are normal.
"It's the same as when I go to the hospital or the scene of a car accident where there's been a tragedy," he said. "Sometimes you really don't have any words that can justify it or feel like you don't have the right thing to say, and that's okay."
He plans to remind students that they can begin to deal with those feelings by expressing solidarity with families affected by the tragedy in Minneapolis through prayer and commiseration.
"It's allowing our students to enter into that period of grief and allowing God to be present," he said. "Then they can start asking the questions about action and what now."
Weekend's gospel reading holds valuable lessons
In Brooklyn, DiMarzio said the attack, and the killer's hateful writings, illustrated "how prejudice doesn't have any limits." As such, he said, one potent and pertinent message lies in this weekend's gospel reading, as specified by the liturgical calendar observed by Catholic and Protestant denominations.
Mourners visit a memorial outside Annunciation Catholic Church on August 29, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On August 27 an assailant fired through the stained-glass windows of the church while students were sitting in pews during a Catholic school Mass, killing two children and injuring at least 17 others.
The reading, from the Book of Luke, describes a sabbath banquet at which Jesus shares a parable advising guests to express humility by not claiming the best seats at such events.
"That's the basic virtue we need when we recognize that everyone is equal, that we're not better than anyone else," DiMarzio said. "Prejudice is like a creeping disease. That is a problem in our country, and the more divisions and lack of unity you see, the more you see this kind of thing."
The Diocese of Brooklyn, which he once oversaw, will be among a number of interfaith communities taking part in Stand Up Sunday, a Sept. 7 demonstration against antisemitism and other forms of religious hate which are on the rise nationwide.
"That's what we'll be trying to do with people of faith worshipping this weekend, to say that we need mutual respect," DiMarzio said. "We need to treat everyone the way we'd like to be treated."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Minneapolis shooting: How can priests help in face of tragedy
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