IMAGE: CNS photo/Harrison McClary, Reuters
By
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston called for prayers for
the victims killed and injured in a pair of school shootings in Kentucky and
Texas.
In a
statement released Jan. 23 after the second shooting in two days, Cardinal
DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Christians experience
the pain of the family and friends of the victims “as if it were our
own.”
“We
pray for eternal rest for those who have died. Let us pray, too, for the
families, teachers and friends who must now endure the suffering of losing
those dearest to them,” the cardinal said.
“We
stand in solidarity with the children who face a long road of recover from
serious injuries. May they find comfort in a loving community,” he said.
He also
called for people to reach out “in compassion to assist the grieving.”
Police said
a 15-year-old male student was arrested at Marshall County High School in
Benton, Kentucky, Jan. 23 after two people died and 18 were injured after
a shooter opened fire before classes began.
Kentucky
Gov. Matt Bevin said the teenager faced murder and attempted murder charges.
The slain
victims were a boy and a girl, both 15, state police said. The girl died at the
scene and the boy died at a hospital.
A day
earlier in Italy, Texas, police arrested a 16-year-old high school student in connection with a shooting that left a 15-year-old girl injured.
Police in the
community about 50 miles south of Dallas, said the incident occurred in the Italy
High School cafeteria. The girl was airlifted to a hospital in Dallas. Police
did not release any other information about the incident.
In
other reaction, Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich said that “yet again, we are
brought to our knees in prayer and pain as we consider the horrors of gun
violence.”
He
noted that in both Texas and Kentucky, children were the victims, “struck down apparently
by other children — limitless potential cut short, families seized by grief.” He
offered prayers for the shooting victims at both schools and their families and
for those shot “on the streets of our cities.”
“We
used to call these heinous acts ‘unimaginable,” the cardinal said in a Jan. 23 statement. “But we don’t need to imagine them anymore, because they happen every
single day in America. And why? … Because we lack a health care system and
culture that adequately support those who need psychological treatment.”
He
called it “all too easy” in the United States “to carry out mass shootings with
high-powered artillery designed to kill human beings.”
“Every
day we fail to hold our elected officials accountable for our nation’s weak
gun-safety laws, we fail our children and condemn them to a life marked by
violence that could have been prevented,” Cardinal Cupich said. “How many
children have to die before we find the political will to do something about
it?”
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