From News.va:
The following Telegram was sent to the Diocese of Bridgeport on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI when he was informed of the horrific shooting attack in Connecticut in which a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children.
“The Holy Father was promptly informed of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and he has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of this closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event. In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God, our Father, to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community with the spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love.”
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Secretary of State
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America Still Has Half a Soul. For Now., by Carl E. Olson, at The Catholic World Report.
I thought telegrams were all but extinct. I’m sure glad His Holiness chose this “old fashioned” means of communication instead of tweeting.
Charles E Flynn, that is an excellent commentary.
Beautifully written. “senseless tragedy”: We didn’t have these rampage killings in the 50s and early 60s; at least the first that I can remember is the Texas Tower killings in 1966. We ought to asking why. Holy Father indirectly suggests one of the reasons, “spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love.” Perhaps spiritual strength was stronger then than now; the killer certainly didn’t have it. Let’s do what we can to make it stronger for our social order. There can be no social order, no human relations whatsoever, without forgiveness, hope, and reconciling love.
I here a lot of people in the media and in the broader culture asking “Why did this happen?” I may be in the minority, and I hope I am not minimizing the horror and tragedy of this terrible occurrence, but I am not asking why–I know why. The “why” is evil, pure and simple.
It seems to me that most of the people who are asking “why” are folks who no longer believe in evil, or do not see the link between the evil of denying God’s plan for family and human dignity (that is, promoting homosexuality and contraception) and the evil of the overall culture of death. We see Episcopalian “priestesses” leading chants of “Abortion is a blessing, and our work is not finished” yet those who hold to that mentality is dumbfounded over this tragedy.
Michael Val
(who says evil is evil, and we need to fight all of it)
The “why” is evil, pure and simple.
Yes, exactly. Even the governor of CT called it what it was in his speech at the scene . His comment was “Evil visited here today”
He also stated, in a second speech, “In the coming days, we will rely upon that which we have been taught and that which we inherently believe: that there is faith for a reason, and that faith is God’s gift to all of us.”
Atheists/ACLU
take Nativities out of schools and the Public Square.
take prayers out of school
take Christmas out of the “holiday season”
and we let them do it.
No need to ask Why?
It is Herod all over again, trying to destroy the Birth of the Messiah
by the destruction of the Holy Innocents.
Now governments are doing the job of Herod
First by abortion
and now continued by a madman.
Why? Serious mental illness seems to be the answer in this case.