Bishop Robert Barron said the mayor is missing the whole point in seeking a Higher Power during such a time.
“Catholics don’t think that prayer magically protects them from all suffering,” Barron told Fox News Digital. “After all, Jesus prayed fervently from the cross on which he was dying.”
He further explained:
Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God, which strikes me as altogether appropriate precisely at times of great pain. And prayer by no means stands in contrast to decisive moral action. Martin Luther King was a man of deep prayer, who also effected a social revolution in our country. This is not an either/or proposition.
The attack during a morning mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis left two children dead and 18 injured, 14 of them adults, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
The bureau is probing the attack both as a possible act of domestic terrorism and as a hate crime targeting Catholics, the director confirmed in a post on X.
Police have attributed the mass shooting to 23-year-old Robin Westman, who was born male but identified as a female and legally changed his name from Robert in 2020. He reportedly left anti-religious writings in his manifesto and scrawled similar messages on his firearms before carrying out the assault, during which he took his own life, according to police.
Speaking to reporters after the tragedy, Mayor Frey criticized those calling for prayer. “Don’t say this is about ‘thoughts and prayers’ right now — these kids were literally praying,” he said. “It was the first week of school — they were in a church.”
Bishop Barron also said the massacre should be called a deliberate act of anti-Catholic violence.
“In the past seven years in our country, there has been a 700% increase in violent acts against Christians and Christian churches,” he told Fox News Digital. “Worldwide, Christianity is by far the most persecuted religion. That people are even wondering whether the tragedy in Minneapolis is an instance of anti-Catholic violence is puzzling to me.”
The bishop is not alone this week in robustly defending prayer during such tragedies.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, also defended prayer in comments directed at MSNBC host Jen Psaki, who also was critical of the “thoughts and prayers” phrase.
Vance went on to pray with the audience at an appearance in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
“We pray because our hearts are broken,” Vance wrote in his earlier post to the former Biden administration press secretary Psaki. “We pray because we know God listens. We pray because we know that God works in mysterious ways, and can inspire us to further action. Why do you feel the need to attack other people for praying when kids were just killed praying?”
A spokesperson from Frey’s office stuck by the mayor’s comments in a statement.
“The mayor has always said that thoughts and prayers alone are not enough,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “They must be paired with action and solutions. One doesn’t negate the other — but year after year, students are murdered by gun violence. Enough is enough. We must do more.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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