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From His Excellency Most Reverend Timothy Broglio, Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, issued the following statement today on the shootings at the Navy Yard.
Archbishop Broglio said:
“With all people of good will, I am shocked and deeply saddened by the terrible loss of life this morning at the Navy Yard. I have often visited and celebrated the Eucharist there. It is a familiar place. I also prayed for the victims, the wounded, and their families at the noon Mass at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center. Somehow we must restore the notion of respect for life into the fabric of the Nation. When the uniqueness of the human person created in the image and likeness of God is universally recognized, the possibility of a mass shooting is more remote.”
I am sure that you all, with me, will pray for the victims and their families. Let us redouble our efforts to live holy lives and make Christ known and loved.
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I received their email earlier and couldn’t agree more with the last sentence especially! It’s along the lines of what Mother Teresa used to say. Maybe it occurs to others also, but I often pray that the evil person in these situations, the shooter, for ex., repented before he died. Otherwise it just gives the devil another person in hell, which does no one any good!
I’ve been noticing lately that the evil-doer is often left out of prayers. For example, in a prayer for the victims in Egypt, and the list of people involved was part of the prayer, EXCEPT for the evil-doers.
I think we all need to get into the mode of praying for the repentance and conversion of ALL our enemies, those who do evil, no matter what its form or if they failed or succeeded in their evil plans.
I don’t care that it is politically incorrect to pray for repentance and conversion of persons who apparently prefer to do what they are doing and probably aren’t Catholic. We need to do our duty to their eternal souls and pray just that: repentance and conversion!
Anyway, I’m praying for those who do evil as well as for the victims. It is just horrific that these persons who are serving our country in the armed forces are not permitted to carry their weapons (with live ammo) on base. Their poor families must be in shock and grief right now.
I’ll put them in my evening prayers too.
KAS
I don’t disagree with you and, yes our service people should be armed on U S bases—we can thank former President Clinton for depriving them of that opportunity. It may not have made much difference today though. The vast majority of victims were civilian contractors not service members.
The “fault” here rests with a very misguided and broken criminal justice (non)system. Today’s shooter should still have been in custody for his most recent PRIOR felony shooting incident and, thus, unable to be at the Navy Yard. Thanks to plea and sentence bargaining a five year prison sentence often results in the perpetrator being out of custody in under a year.
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I remember for about three decades people would talk about the terrible mass shooting at a Texas college by a man from a clock tower. In our day we have mass shootings going on every month in the United States. We are becoming almost numb from it. Does anyone ask what is going on in our society to cause this upsurge in random killings. It can’t be ‘GUNS’ because they were even more available fifty years ago when these things didn’t happen.
Something has changed. As a society there is one change that is infecting every corner of the US. It is the loss of Christian values. One by one our society topples the structures that hold the demons back. First contraception, then no fault divorce, then living together outside of marriage, then open fornication, then gay marriage, etc. These have come due to the slow but effective fight by Satan against the Catholic Church and the teachings of Christ. I read an article that put it so well recently. It mentioned that after the ‘Reformation’, the Protestant groups first held almost all the Catholic core beliefs, then one by one they started to drop those beliefs and practices. Today most Catholics have taken on the same attitude as Protestants and pick and choose which Catholic teachings they want to follow.
What amazes me is that the few parishes that do follow ALL Catholic teachings seem to be under fire from some of their Bishops. These generally are the Latin mass parishes and some Bishops are trying to close them. For example, in Arkansas, it appears that Bishop Taylor is closing two Latin Mass parishes because many won’t send their children to the heretical CCD classes. Story here: http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2013/07/little-rock-bishop-closes-in-on-latin.html
Father Z, I thank you for being a light in the darkness. I thank all our fine priests that take up the cross and tell their parishioners the hard truth. Sin is sin and when we sin without repentance, we will go to Hell. If the Catholic Church calls something a sin, it is a sin because Jesus promised that what is bound on Earth by the Church will be bound in heaven. Whether we agree with it or not has no bearing. But how many Catholics actually know this. For example, how many of them are told by their priests that Contraception is a sin that can send you to Hell.
As our society literally goes to the Devil, we must stand strong with the Church. When we can join around strong priests like Father Z, we can support each other, encourage each other, in a ever more violent and depraved world. We can see heaven opened to us in the Holy Mass. Let us pray for our holy priests, Bishops, Pope and Church.