By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — The Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer — a white stucco church just off
the Las Vegas Strip and dwarfed by giant hotels, casinos and flashing neon
lights — has long been a spiritual oasis for tourists.
The church, with a
statue of Jesus, his arms outstretched, near its entrance, became a different
source of refuge after the deadly mass shooting took place Oct. 1 just across
the street.
Its parking lot became an immediate
place of shelter for concertgoers fleeing the barrage of bullets that showered down onto the country music festival.
And hours later, a member of the
Metropolitan Police Department asked a diocesan official about using the church
space — allowing some of the concertgoers to go inside and the police to set
up a command post in the parking lot.
Father Bob Stoeckig, vicar
general of Las Vegas, said a chancery employee went to the church later in the
morning after the shooting took place and found various personal items in the
parking lot including shoes, bloodied pieces of clothing and some personal
items that people dropped as they fled.
“Near the doors of the
church itself he found a few bullets that we believe ricocheted from the
concert venue. None hit the building itself,” he said in an Oct. 3 email
to Catholic News Service.
He also said the shrine had been
closed Oct. 2 and 3 so it could be used as a site to aid the police in
completing their investigation.
The shrine, which opened in 1993,
can seat 2,200, making it the biggest church in the diocese. It is not a parish
and is primarily there to provide a spiritual home away from home to Catholic
tourists who come through the city.
A profile of the $3.2 million
church in The New York Times a year after it opened said the shrine draws
thousands of worshippers a week, 80 percent of them tourists, and unlike most
churches, the congregants are invited to put casino chips in the collection
plate.
The story said a church worker was
designated to make a run every few weeks to cash in the chips at the casinos
and a Franciscan friar who once had that role was called “the chip
monk.”
The church is flanked by palm
trees and the 30-story pyramid of Luxor Hotel and Casino is just behind it.
One statue on the front of the
church property is a bronze statue of Jesus sitting on a rock surrounded by
statues of children with his arms out as if he is playing with them.
Msgr. Gregory Gordon, pastor of St.
Anne Church, about three miles north of the Las Vegas Strip, said the statue has
a particular message in these trying days after the shooting that took at least 59 lives
and left more than 500 people wounded.
He said Jesus is looking to the
west, near the site where the shooting took place.
The priest said that when he recently
saw the statue, he prayed that Jesus would look after all the children and bless
those of all ages, since those attending the country music festival, that
became the target of the deadly shooting, encompassed all ages.
“The group crossed many
generations,” he said. “And they were enjoying a peaceful time that
was interrupted at the last moment.”
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Follow Zimmermann on Twitter:
@carolmaczim.
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