If you watch only one commentary about Wednesday’s mass shooting at Annunication Catholic Church in Minneapolis, please take the time to watch this analysis from Michael Knowles:

I have seen a few responses from Catholic bishops, and to say they vary in quality would be a gross understatement.

There are messages about forgiveness; I have no argument in principle with speaking about that, although I do have some reservations about the timing and the way it is being framed – more on that in a moment.

There are also a number of messages from the bishops about gun control, and unfortunately, many of these messages mirror the rhetoric of our secular overlords. For example, this post looks no further in its analysis than a “superabundance of handguns and assault weapons”:

For me, it brings back memories of the betrayals of the faithful during COVID, when the bishops agreed to lock the faithful out of the sacramental life. The fear of physical death clearly seemed to take priority over the fear of eternal death. In fact, many decisions made in the church regarding COVID could have just as easily been made by non-believers. In short, I don’t think it was a wise pastoral decision to lock the churches during the lockdown.

But to return to the topic at hand:

Forgiveness of mass murderers is a worthy aspiration. It can even look kind of sexy from a distance.

But a real spirit of forgiveness is forged in a crucible of suffering.

It’s easy to want to rush reflexively to forgiveness, to sweep offenses under the rug, to move on quickly in the spirit of a false irenicism.

I think that’s wrong. I think it’s unjust. It is especially unjust to our young people.

Where is our solicitude for the needs of the young? They deserve not to be sexually abused, not to be lied to, not to be killed in church, and not to be neglected generally. Justice is the foundation of charity. Charity is not cheap and not sentimental.

A true and just charity begins at home. It means clergy and laypeople not lying to young people about the sins of the church’s leadership — sins against purity, sins against innocence, sins against the truth. It means clergy and laypeople not abusing young people’s innocence. Not lying and covering up abuse, and not protecting perpetrators of abuse and continuing to put young people in harm’s way. It means not neglecting young people: World Youth Days are great, but they hardly excuse the everyday neglect of the youth inside the church.

Once we’ve made some progress in these areas, we might at least have a modicum of credibility in proclaiming ourselves to be heralds of the Gospel in the world.

Carrying on about gun control is handing stones to our young people when it is our duty to provide them bread. Even unbelievers can provide stones to our youth: stones of unbelief, stones of cynicism, stones of worldly wisdom, stones of pharmaceuticals, stones of empty pleasures, stones of “smart devices” and AI.

“What man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9)

When do we begin acting like disciples of Jesus Christ? When do we begin telling them about the dignity of the human person, the goodness of being created male and female, the goodness of the bodies we receive as a gift?

We need to be dedicated to intellectual charity, as Pope Benedict XVI once described in an address to educators at the Catholic University of America:

More and more people – parents in particular – recognize the need for excellence in the human formation of their children. As Mater et Magistra, the Church shares their concern. When nothing beyond the individual is recognized as definitive, the ultimate criterion of judgment becomes the self and the satisfaction of the individual’s immediate wishes. The objectivity and perspective, which can only come through a recognition of the essential transcendent dimension of the human person, can be lost. Within such a relativistic horizon the goals of education are inevitably curtailed. Slowly, a lowering of standards occurs. We observe today a timidity in the face of the category of the good and an aimless pursuit of novelty parading as the realization of freedom. We witness an assumption that every experience is of equal worth and a reluctance to admit imperfection and mistakes. And particularly disturbing, is the reduction of the precious and delicate area of education in sexuality to management of ‘risk’, bereft of any reference to the beauty of conjugal love.

How might Christian educators respond? These harmful developments point to the particular urgency of what we might call “intellectual charity”. This aspect of charity calls the educator to recognize that the profound responsibility to lead the young to truth is nothing less than an act of love. Indeed, the dignity of education lies in fostering the true perfection and happiness of those to be educated. In practice “intellectual charity” upholds the essential unity of knowledge against the fragmentation which ensues when reason is detached from the pursuit of truth. It guides the young towards the deep satisfaction of exercising freedom in relation to truth, and it strives to articulate the relationship between faith and all aspects of family and civic life. Once their passion for the fullness and unity of truth has been awakened, young people will surely relish the discovery that the question of what they can know opens up the vast adventure of what they ought to do. Here they will experience “in what” and “in whom” it is possible to hope, and be inspired to contribute to society in a way that engenders hope in others.

God forgive us all for our neglect of the next generation of Christians.

In one sense, the blood of those schoolchildren is on our own hands as Catholics. Our political leaders in Minnesota have been avid fans of a poisonous gender ideology for quite some time. Have we challenged them, opposed them, and – in the face of their intransigence – worked assiduously to vote them out of office? If not, are we not in some way complicit in their crimes against humanity?

I think we need to back away from our frenzied responses on social media, and the relentless cycle of media pundits telling us what to believe (and what not to notice). We need to face Christ in the solitude and silence of our hearts. As far as I can tell, we have not challenged our secular overlords very much, and I truly believe that is a failure on our part. I wonder whether we have the courage for a thorough examination of conscience in this regard.

May the grace of God transform this moment of reckoning into a time of conversion and renewal.

For more resources on how to keep schools and churches safe, and on the spiritual underpinnings of gun violence, visit this page: School / church shootings: prevention, defense and the spiritual dimension.