Vatican cardinal, newspaper react to Minneapolis church shooting

August 29, 2025

The prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education sent a telegram to Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis following the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, which claimed the lives of two innocent victims and left 18 injured (CWN coverage).

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça expressed “deepest condolences for the death of the two children during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.”

“Please count on our fervent prayers for the victims and their families and on the assurance of our spiritual closeness to the entire affected community,” he added. “This heartbreaking event demonstrates the need for Catholic education to renew its efforts in the face of today’s challenges to continue building a culture of fraternity, founded on an unarmed and disarming peace.”

Cardinal Mendonça’s words followed an earlier papal telegram, sent on August 27, the day of the shooting.

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, devoted the most prominent front-page coverage in its August 28 edition to the shooting, with the headline “Usa: Le ‘armi facili’ uccidono altri due bambini“ [USA: ‘Easy weapons’ kill two more children].

“Another tragedy, the latest in a long series due to the reckless easy access to weapons in the United States,” the unsigned article began. “And this time too, as on many, too many occasions, the victims are children.”

After reporting on the incident, the article concluded:

In the United States, the senseless violence caused by so-called “easy weapons” shows no sign of abating. In this case, too, the rifle used by the young man in the attack on the Minneapolis school church had been purchased legally.

 

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Further information:

• Usa: Le “armi facili” uccidono altri due bambini (L'Osservatore Romano, 8/28/25)
• Pope, US bishops lament Minneapolis church shooting
• Mass shooting during Mass at Catholic school in Minneapolis (CWN, 8/27/25)