After Annunciation shooting, Catholic schools pray, prepare drills in sanctuaries
People gather at a vigil at Lynnhurst park after a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School, August 27, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
As news of the mass shooting at a welcome-back Mass for the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis spread across the country on August 27, Catholic educators and church leaders sprang into action, reinforcing safety protocols and consoling students, even as they worked to process their own emotions about an unprecedented tragedy in which two children were killed and an additional 18 people were injured.
While many school leaders have become resigned to the necessity of preparing for potential school shootings, it was shocking to Catholics across the country to learn of an attack as students were gathered for worship.
Paul Escala, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’s more than 250 Catholic schools, said school leaders “oftentimes assume that it’s going to be someone inside the school campus coming in through corridors.” This case “was unimaginable,” he said, “that you have an active shooter beginning their shooting on the outside of the church through the glass, which was low and close to the pews.”
