Reflections on the Annunciation Shooting
How Should Catholics Respond?
In the aftermath of last week’s shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, journalist Kerry Weber offered a reflection for America on “why the Minneapolis school shooting hits home for Catholic school parents.” Although admitting that, “There’s nothing about a shooting at a Catholic school that is more or less tragic than a shooting at any other school,” Weber recounts the time she spent with her own children on the day of the shooting as well as earlier memories, adding that tragedies that overlap with our own lives feel closer. Indeed, when I first saw the news about the shooting, I immediately thought of my own niece and nephew, who only a few days ago began the new school year at their Catholic elementary and high schools, respectively.
Undoubtedly, the Annunciation shooting also hits home for Catholic educators and pastoral ministers, as well. As far as I can tell, last week’s shooting is the first mass shooting at a Catholic K-12 school in the United States (although there have been shootings involving disputes between particular individuals). Even so, given the regular occurrence of school shootings in the US, Catholic educators have surely long been working with the understanding that their institution could be next. Also writing at America, Rachel Lu expresses disappointment that local and state officials in Minnesota have not expressed more of a commitment to protect Catholic schools and churches in response to the shooting. Even so, Catholic school and parish administrators should take prudent measures (if they haven’t already done so) to help prevent future shootings and other acts of violence.
At the same time, the quest for security should not compromise the evangelical mission of Catholic institutions. Just to provide a simple example: the Catholic News Agency recently ran an article explaining how the design of most church windows creates risk in the case of a shooting like that in Minneapolis. But to what extent should the design of church windows, which play such an important role in creating a place of reverence, be dictated by security needs in the rare occurrence of a shooting? Similarly, concerns about the security of Catholic churches and schools should not lead Catholics into the arms of politicians and pundits who are cynically using warnings about anti-Catholic bigotry for their own ends. According to the journal of the Annunciation shooter, Robin Westman—who had previously attended Annunciation and whose mother apparently once worked at the parish—the shooting “is not a church or religion attack, that is not the message. The message is there is no message,” although experts also warn that not everything in the journal should be taken at face value.
“The message is there is no message.” The Annunciation shooting hits home for Catholic parents and educators not just because it overlaps with our own lives, but also, in a strange way, because it reaffirms the reason why we seek to integrate faith into the lives of our children, to bring the light of the Gospel into a world with so much darkness. The idea of opening fire into a church full of unsuspecting children gathered in prayer at the beginning of a new school year is an incomprehensible horror, but the fact that children in Catholic schools begin each day with prayer, and that the survivors of the shooting and those in solidarity with them will continue to gather in prayer as they care for those who are still wounded and rebuild their community is a testimony to the strength and sense of purpose that faith offers.
Westman’s journal and videos posted online suggest that the shooter had struggled with mental health issues for a long time—Westman reported having suicidal and homicidal thoughts for years and claimed to have been suspended from the seventh grade for talking about school shootings. But these documents also suggest that these mental health struggles had led Westman to sympathize with a vague worldview the FBI has recently labeled “nihilistic violent extremism.” Despairing at a lack of meaning in life, violent nihilists glorify violence and seek to deliberately cause chaos. In videos, Westman identified several mass shooters of recent years—like Brenton Tarrant, who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, and Anders Breivik, who killed several dozen people at a summer camp in Norway in 2011—in a perverse anti-litany of saints, a characteristic common among recent nihilist extremists. The goal is seemingly to create meaning by joining this pantheon of killers with the assistance of social media. As someone insightfully suggested on social media, “nihilist violent extremism” is not an ideology that is likely to spread into a larger movement; instead, it’s like a toxic cloud that makes its impact by gradually fraying our culture along the edges, tempting us to take pleasure in violence, coarsening our respect for the dignity of others, and sapping our hope.
That’s why, as Catholics, our most important response to the Annunciation shooting should be to redouble our efforts to faithfully live out the Gospel and, through our actions, to be a message of hope and reconciliation for others. That’s why it’s important to resist the temptation to seek security at all costs, even at the price of faithful witness. Being a follower of Jesus means taking on a certain amount of vulnerability, certainly at the emotional level, but even sometimes at the level of physical safety.
It’s also important to resist the temptation of using the occasion to scapegoat others. Westman identified as transgender, legally adopting the name “Robin” in 2020 and identifying as a woman. The suspect’s journal states that gender dysphoria contributed to Westman’s depression, as did the “antagonistic” response of Westman’s mother, the latter of which “led me to wanting to kill so so many people.” Westman also claims to “regret being trans” and to be “tired of being trans,” although what that seems to mean is that even after transitioning, Westman continued to experience gender dysphoria while also continuing to identify as female: “I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today. I also can’t afford that.” These struggles with gender identity clearly played a role in Westman’s descent into nihilism, but it would be dangerous and false to suggest, as some have, that transgender identity leads to violence or that there is an emerging violent “transgender ideology.” Regardless of one’s views on transgender identity, everyone should resist efforts to falsely demonize a group whose members are in fact disproportionately the victims of violence.
After every school shooting, it has become a grim ritual to mock those politicians who offer their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and their families while refusing to take any political action that might reduce the incidence of such violence. Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in an interview with NewsNation, insisted on the importance of prayer, but also that “our experience of God’s love has to lead us to action, as well.” Others went further, however, seeming to question the efficacy of prayer. For example, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the day of the shooting, “Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying!” In an interview with Fox News, Bishop Robert Barron criticized the mayor for not understanding the meaning of prayer: “Catholics don’t think that prayer magically protects them from all suffering. After all, Jesus prayed fervently from the cross on which he was dying.” Barron added, “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. . . . This is not an either/or proposition.”
Theologically, I agree with Bishop Barron’s point. Writing at the National Catholic Reporter, Michaeal Sean Winters argues that Barron misunderstood Frey, who was making the similar point that prayer must be paired with action. I am not sure. Either way, we could be more thoughtful about what it is we are actually doing when we pray. I also agree with Archbishop Hebda, who, in his official statement in response to the shooting, emphasized the important role prayer does play in responding to a tragedy, stating: “While we need to commit to working to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies, we also need to remind ourselves that we have a God of peace and of love, and that it is his love that we will need most as we strive to embrace those who are hurting so deeply.” It’s precisely by drawing on that gift of love that allows us to continue on as witnesses of hope in a dark world and to advocate for measures that can effectively prevent instances of violence.
Of Interest…
Soon after his election to the papacy, I noted the important role the theme of “peace” played in Pope Leo XIV’s “Urbi et Orbi” message delivered on the day of his election. Last week, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development announced that the pope’s annual World Day of Peace message, which is usually released in early December (even though the World Day of Peace is January 1), will expand on the themes introduced in that earlier address, particularly Leo’s claim that the peace of Christ is “unarmed and disarming.” The dicastery further explained that peace “must be unarmed, that is, not based on fear, threats or weapons. And it must be disarming, capable of resolving conflicts, opening hearts and generating mutual trust, empathy and hope.” God willing, I will be here to analyze Leo’s message when it is released in December!
Back in June, I described how activists with the Italian group Mediterranea Saving Humans, an organization that saves migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa who become stranded at sea on their way to Europe, some of whom were close with Pope Francis, had been spied on by the Italian government using the spyware app Graphite, produced by the Israeli company Paragon. Earlier this week, it was reported that in the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has re-activated a contract with Paragon to likewise use the Graphite software as part of its enforcement efforts. The Biden administration had initially signed the contract in late 2024 but placed it on hold as a result of an executive order banning the use of spyware by the federal government. According to The Guardian, Graphite users: “can not only track an individual’s whereabouts, read their messages, look at their photographs, but also open and read information held on encrypted applications, like WhatsApp or Signal. Spyware like Graphite can also be used as a listening device, through the manipulation of the phone’s recorder.” Perhaps, especially in light of recent efforts to target Catholic and other nonprofit groups that assistant migrants, we will soon see reports of the US government spying on US Catholic immigration advocates, and perhaps even bishops and priests?
Coming Soon…
I’m happy to be back writing after my 2+ weeks hiatus, and I hope you’re glad I’m back! I have reactivated the subscriptions of paid subscribers but let me know if you have any issues. I may be a little slow getting back to my usual pace, but I hope to be back in typical form soon!
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