Minneapolis - Annunciation Catholic Church held its first Mass Saturday since a shooting at its adjacent school left one person dead and multiple others injured earlier this week. the service offered a space for the Southwest Minneapolis community to begin healing and reclaim a sense of normalcy following the trauma.
The shooting occurred at Annunciation Catholic School on Thursday, prompting a lockdown and a massive police response. Authorities have identified the shooter and stated he harbored a clear motive,fueled by hate and an obsession with harming children,according to acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, Joseph Thompson.Investigators have reported no prior red flags raised concerning the suspect.
during Saturday’s Mass, held in a separate building from the school, parishioners recounted the harrowing moments of the shooting. Pastor Joseph Zehren described the congregation being directed to the floor as gunfire erupted, believed to have come from a semiautomatic rifle. “The voices cried out, down, down, get low. Stay down. Stay down. Don’t get up,” Zehren recalled. He shared a message of faith amidst the fear, stating, “When we were down there, in that low place, Jesus showed us something. He showed us, I am the Lord, even here.”
Zehren encouraged the congregation to confront darkness with faith, asserting, “Together in that low place, we looked with Jesus into the eyes of the forces of darkness and death and evil…and Jesus pointed, and he said, ‘See, can’t you see how weak it is? Can’t you see how desperate it is? Can’t you see that this can never last?'”
Archbishop Bernard Hebda expressed hope that returning to Mass would aid parishioners and students in regaining a sense of routine. Charlie Lyman, a parishioner and long-time member of the community, emphasized the church’s enduring role as a source of strength. “This place instills in us a sense of great faith to be good to one another, to help each other, to be kind to one another,” said Lyman, whose family contributed to the church’s construction.
Tess Rada, attending with her 8-year-old daughter Lila Hostetler, a student at Annunciation, found comfort in Zehren’s words. “Just hearing the emotion in his voice was very – it was nice,” she said. “It was like, you know these emotions aren’t escaping anyone. We all feel it,but we can feel it together.”
