St. Columba Catholic Church

"I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did," said U.S. Vice President JD Vance following his visit with parents and victims of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vances are shown here outside the church during their Sept. 3, 2025 visit. / Credit: Alex Wroblewski-Pool/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 3, 2025 / 18:39 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance visited Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday to meet with victims and families of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting that occurred last week. 

The Vances visited the church sanctuary, which is the site of the shooting that claimed the lives of two children and left more than 20 wounded. The pair stopped outside the church to observe the memorial and leave bouquets of flowers.

A spokesperson for the vice president said Vance held a private meeting with the parents of the two children who were killed, Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel. Mike and Jackie Moyski and Jesse and Mollie Merkel met with Vance, Father Denis Zehren of Annunciation Catholic Church, and Matt DeBoer, the principal of Annunciation Catholic School. 

The Vances also traveled to Children’s Minnesota Hospital to visit with some of the victims who are still in recovery, including Lydia Kaiser. Vance later spoke on the phone with Weston Halsne, another victim recovering from surgery who was not yet well enough to be visited in person when Vance was there. 

'I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did'

“We should talk more about these kids. We should talk less about the shooter,” Vance said to reporters at the airport following the visit. “I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did.” 

When asked about Gov. Walz’s call for a special legislative session to consider new gun laws, the Vice President said: “I'm not going to tell the Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond to this tragedy. I think that…there's a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so that these shootings are less common.”

“I think that it's important that they actually take steps that are favorable, that are going to work. But besides that, I'm not an expert in Minnesota law,” Vance said. “I would just say, ‘take the concerns of these parents seriously.’ I think all of us, Democrat, Republican and independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently. Hopefully there's some steps that we can take to make that happen.” 

null / Credit: angellodeco/Shutterstock

Houston, Texas, Sep 3, 2025 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

A new report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that 1.0% of individuals aged 13 and older in the United States — approximately 2.8 million people — now identify as transgender, with younger generations significantly more likely to identify as such compared to older age groups. 

According to the report, 0.8% of U.S. adults, or over 2.1 million people, identify as transgender, while 3.3% of youth aged 13 to 17, roughly 724,000 people, identify as transgender. 

The findings, drawn from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2021-2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the 2021 and 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), provide the most comprehensive data yet on transgender youth, particularly from the 2023 YRBS.

The BRFSS, which began offering states the option to ask about transgender identity in 2014, saw 41 states include the question in at least one year from 2021 to 2023, up from 19 states in 2014. 

The gender identity distribution among transgender adults is roughly evenly split: about one-third identify as transgender women (biological men), one-third as transgender men (biological women), and one-third as transgender nonbinary. 

The study found the distribution to be consistent across U.S. regions and states, with no significant variations noted in the 2021-2023 data compared to earlier years.

Younger age groups more likely to identify as transgender

The data highlight an obvious generational trend: younger age groups are far more likely to identify as transgender than older ones, and individuals who identify as transgender are younger on average than the broader U.S. population. Among young adults aged 18 to 24, 2.7% identify as transgender, compared to just 0.3% of those aged 65 and older, a statistically significant difference.

Of those aged 13 and older who identify as transgender, 25.3% are youth aged 13 to 17 (up from 18.3% in prior estimates), 28.9% are young adults aged 18 to 24 (up from 24.4%), and 50.7% are aged 18 to 34. Overall, three-quarters (76.0%) of the transgender population aged 13 and older are under 35.

Gender ideology ‘isn’t going away’

Theresa Farnan, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPCC) focusing on the challenges of gender ideology through the Person and Identity Project, told CNA these numbers seem accurate and problematic.

“In some ways, these numbers are shocking,” Farnan said, “and others, they don’t shock me at all. They actually seem kind of low.”

She cited a 2021 study at an urban school district that found nearly ten percent of the students identified as transgender.

The numbers codify “significant problems,” Farnan says. 

“Gender ideology isn’t going away,” she continued. “There are 2.8 million people acting on this false anthropology; who have internalized it so much, they don’t think their body tells them anything about who they are.”

Executive orders banning transgender medical procedures on children, while good, will not solve what she calls a “youth-driven problem.” 

In addition, policies promoting transgender ideology “will be right back in full force when a Democrat becomes president again,” she said.

State laws in conservative states “might not have teeth.” She pointed out that while such procedures are banned in Georgia, the law exempts procedures that are “life-saving.”

“A doctor will just say these procedures are life saving!” she said.

“There are cultural factors pushing this” ideology, she said. “If we’re going to get serious at keeping people from these harms, we need to address it at all levels.”

Farnan cited a recent study that showed young people are still “reachable.” Almost 90% of college students surveyed said they felt pressured to say they held more progressive views than they actually did just to “virtue signal” in order to conform. Nearly 80% said they self-censored about their views on gender ideology.

Clear upward trend

The 2023 data shows a clear upward trend in transgender identification, particularly among youth (3.3% vs. 0.7% in 2017) and young adults (2.7% vs. 1.3% in 2016 for 18-24), compared to older adults (0.3% for 65+).

These numbers confirm a trend observed in Williams Institute reports since 2011, which have tracked the size and characteristics of the transgender population.

According to the report, the 2023 estimate of 1.0% (2.8 million) is a significant increase from 0.6% (1.4 million) in 2016 and 0.7% (1.8 million) in 2020. This represents a 100% increase from 2016 and a 56% increase from 2020 in the estimated number of transgender individuals. The rise is attributed to better data collection (e.g., 41 states in 2021-2023 BRFSS vs. 19 in 2014) and increased willingness to identify as transgender, particularly among youth, probably due to changing cultural norms.

Farnan told CNA there are many risk factors leading to the increase in transgender identification, particularly among youth. “It very often co-occurs with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, attachment disorders, and sexual trauma” as well as “autism, parents’ mental health issues, and broken families.”

“Pornography use also plays a huge role, especially for boys,” she said.

It is also very difficult to extricate oneself from the trangender community once a young person has entered it, Farnan said. She referred to Robin Westman, the Minnesota man who killed 2 children and injured 21 more people, 18 of them children, last week. “If you express any doubts, everyone in that community turns on you,” she said.

Robin Westman, 23, a man who struggled with his sexual identity, shot through the now boarded windows of Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, killing 2 children and injuring 21 others. / Credit: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 17:46 pm (CNA).

The shooter who killed two children and injured 21 others at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis blamed “gender and weed” for his mental health issues and discussed how his struggles with gender dysphoria contributed to his desire to commit the attack.

Robin Westman, the 23-year-old male shooter who self-identified as a transgender woman, made the admission in the manifesto he publicized on YouTube shortly before the shooting, according to a translation by the New York Post.

“Gender and weed [expletive] up my head,” Westman wrote in the manifesto, which was written in Cyrillic characters and phonetic English words. “I wish I never tried experimenting with either. Don’t let your kids smoke weed or change gender until they are like seventeen.”

Westman legally changed his first name from “Robert” to “Robin” when he was 17 years old to reflect his desire to present himself as a woman. He worked for a marijuana dispensary earlier this year, but was not working there when he carried out the Aug. 27 attack.

Although Westman’s mother gave parental consent for the name change, his writings claim she did not agree with the decision.

“When I was first out to my mother, she was VERY antagonistic,” he wrote. “She really made me hate myself and think I will never be good enough … I remember one day, she said something like, ‘In the future you will look back and feel ridiculous about who you feel like you are inside. You will regret this.’ Well guess what mom?! I regret being born.”

According to the Post’s translation, Westman claimed the way his mother handled his gender dysphoria “led me to wanting to kill so so many people.”

A previous translation of other sections of the manifesto by the Post revealed that Westman also expressed “regret” for “being trans” and wrote: “I wish I was a girl. I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today. I also can’t afford that.”

Even though he criticized how his mother handled his gender dysphoria, he also wrote that he wished “I never brainwashed myself” about gender, but maintained long hair “because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans.” He wrote that “I know I am not a woman, but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”

Westman appeared to partially contradict himself in an English-language letter he wrote to his family and friends, which he also published on YouTube. In the letter, he told his mother and father, “you didn’t fail me” and “I truly appreciate the love you have given me.” His writings expressed struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, which were ongoing for years.

The shooter attended the school whose parish he targeted and his mother worked there until her retirement in 2021, about one year after the formal name change.

Westman’s plans and motivations

One video Westman posted to Youtube showed the parish as a pre-planned target.

In the video, he showed a detailed drawing of the layout of the church. A translation of some of his manifesto writings from CNN revealed that he visited the church and pretended he was interested in coming back to Catholicism. One entry discussed a visit to the parish, in which he wrote the teachers “will not be expecting an attack in the very first week of school.”

The CNN translation further shows that Westman had the desire to commit a mass shooting for much of his life, stating: “Every school I went to, I have some fantasy at some point or another of shooting up my school. Even every job.” He also describes being suspended when he was in seventh grade for asking a student “where would you hide” if there was a school shooting.

According to the translation, Westman also wrote “this is not a church or religion attack, that is not the message” and “the message is there is no message.”

However, videos he posted before the shooting suggested an anti-Catholic motivation along with an affinity for mass murderers, Satanism, racism, and antisemitism. He also conveyed threats to President Donald Trump.

In one video, Westman zoomed in on an image of Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns that he attached to the head of a human-shaped shooting target. He laughed before showing many anti-Christian messages written on the guns and magazines, including “take this all of you and eat it” on a rifle and “where is your God?” on a magazine.

Westman also drew an inverted pentagram on one of the magazines with the number “666” and an inverted cross on a rifle, both of which are symbols often co-opted by Satanists. A notebook he showed in one video included a drawing in which he was looking into a mirror with a rifle on his back and the reflection showed what appeared to be a demon looking back at him.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the agency is investigating the attack as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.” Police have not stated a primary motive.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in an interview with Fox & Friends that the National Institutes of Health is looking into the role that psychiatric drugs could potentially play in shootings, noting that many contain warnings of “suicidal ideation.”  

“We’re launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence,” he said.

A woman kneels to pray during a prayer service of peace and healing at the Cathedral of St. Paul held to address the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in neighboring Minneapolis on Aug. 28, 2025 in St. Paul, Minnesota. A gunman fired through the windows of the church while students were sitting in pews during a Catholic school Mass, killing two children and injuring at least 17 others. / Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

National Catholic Register, Sep 3, 2025 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

Should Catholic churches make it harder to shoot through windows?

That question has taken on urgency this past week, after a gunman fired dozens of bullets through narrow stained-glass windows during an all-school daily Mass at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, killing two schoolchildren and wounding at least 21 other people, including pupils and elderly.

Security experts who spoke with the Register said windows are an obvious vulnerability for many churches, and they suggested that Church officials should pay more attention to making them more secure.

“Your glass is the weakest point,” said Joe Bockheim, account manager of West Michigan Glass Coatings, a company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that provides enhanced security measures for windows for schools and churches, among other clients.

Thomas Mynsberge, a former member of the Michigan State Police’s SWAT team and a security consultant, told the Register he often recommends that clients install break-proof films on their windows, some of which can prevent a bullet shot by a handgun from penetrating.

That’s not the case for high-velocity rifles, such as the one the shooter used in Minneapolis.

“But what it would do is maybe slow the speed down considerably and maybe make it less lethal,” said Mynsberge, founder and president of Critical Incident Management, Inc., of Grand Haven, Michigan.

Film vs. thicker stuff

As deadly as the mass shooting last Wednesday was, it could have been worse.

That’s because the shooter was unable to get into the church, authorities said.

“Annunciation Church had a practice that once Mass began, they locked the doors of the church. This incident occurred shortly after the Mass was beginning. So there’s no question that the fact that the doors were locked likely saved additional lives,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a press conference last Thursday.

“What’s particularly heinous and cowardly about this is these children were slaughtered by a shooter who could not see them. He was standing outside of the building firing through very narrow church windows on the level where they would line up with the pews,” O’Hara said. “And even ultimately when he got to the rear of the church, where there’s an entryway that’s basically all glass, and fired out the window where a person could walk it, ultimately did not walk in.”

It's not clear whether Annunciation Church had strengthened its windows.

Security film for glass windows is typically made of polyethylene terephthalate polyester, although a newer version made of urethane has recently come on the market, said David Carson, chief operating officer of Michigan Glass Coatings, of Auburn Hills, which counts schools and churches among its clients.

The industry standard width for security film is 8 mills — meaning 8 one-thousandths of an inch — although thicker films are available, as is layering of films to provide more protection, Bockheim of West Michigan Glass Coatings told the Register.

The film was originally designed to keep glass from shattering upon impact from a sledgehammer or crowbar, in order to make it more difficult for an intruder to gain quick entry. Such film may slow down the velocity of a bullet, depending on its thickness and layers, and in some cases even prevent a bullet from getting to the other side, Bockheim said.

Yet stopping a bullet fired by a high-velocity rifle with confidence requires 1-inch-thick polycarbonate installed either inside or outside of existing glass windows and attached to the frame.

“The bullets just stick in it, almost like they’re gel,” Carson said.

“Film’s going to give you time. Film’s going to send a message that we’re not going to let you walk in,” Carson said. “And bullet-resistant glass is going to stop the bullets.”

The cost difference is sharp.

Both companies told the Register that installing film over glass typically costs about $20 to $25 a square foot, though the per-unit cost is usually less with larger jobs and more with smaller jobs.

As an example, Bockheim said his company provided security film for eight mostly glass doors and eight sidelights, which are doors that have smaller glass windows, for a Catholic church in Grand Rapids at a cost of about $2,000 to $2,500.

But the 1-inch polycarbonate can cost 15 to 18 times as much as the much thinner films, Bockheim said.

And even then, it may not provide as much security as needed.

“If the money’s there, this is the most cost-effective way to keep bullets from going through glass,” Bockheim said. “But there’s a whole security envelope that needs to be considered. And honestly — and I hate to say it — having somebody armed is going to be just as important as strengthening glass.”

Brian Eaton, an Arizona police officer and founder of Porters of St. Joseph, a Catholic men’s apostolate that trains ushers at 17 parishes in the state to provide security during Mass, noted that strengthening windows can be expensive, but he said every bit helps.

“If they can’t afford the bullet-proof then the break-proof is a good alternative,” Eaton told the Register by text. “Prevents bad guy from getting in, even if he can shoot through it.”

Taking needed steps

Security experts say they understand that many churches operate on thin budgets.

“I think what you have to consider most of the time is what is feasible — get the safety as high as you can as quick as you can without changing everything around you,” Carson said.

Even so, Carson, a former high-school physics teacher, said responsible decision-makers need to do more than they are doing now.

“We know who’s at risk. We need to put something toward it. It’s not being taken seriously enough,” Carson said. “There are ways to stop intruders. We’re not taking all those steps.”

Bockheim, a lifelong Catholic who attended local Catholic schools, lamented the condition of American society that makes discussions such as this one necessary.

Bockheim said, “Business aside, I want us to fix our people, not our windows.” 

This article was originally published in the National Catholic Register, CNA's news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.

Pope Leo XIV poses on a custom BMW R 18 papal motorcycle gifted to him by the Christian Jesus Bikers at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025 / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 3, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

A group of black-clad bikers rumbled into St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday to present Pope Leo XIV with a custom cruiser motorcycle destined for charity.

The pope met members of the Christian Jesus Bikers at the end of his general audience at the Vatican on Sept. 3. The motorcycle club rolled into Rome for a Jubilee of Hope pilgrimage after a three-day day ride from Schaafheim, Germany.

The pope blessed and signed the white BMW R 18 motorcycle before briefly climbing onto the seat to the bikers’ applause.

The custom-designed papal motorcycle will be auctioned off in Munich on Oct. 18, and the funds will benefit children working in mica mines in Madagascar through Missio Austria.

The director of Missio Austria, Father Karl Wallner, OCist., told EWTN News on Wednesday that the point of the pilgrimage was “not just fun and coming to see the pope, but also to help the poorest of the poor” through the project for exploited children.

Wallner said Pope Leo appeared to like the motorcycle a lot. At the audience, “he told the CEO of BMW that he himself liked to drive the motorcycle. So I think we have the first motorcycling pope…”

The two-cylinder boxer engine cruiser was given a papal redesign by the Witzel company in Germany, before taking to the road for the biker pilgrimage, which included daily Mass in churches along the way to Rome.

Around 30 members of the Jesus Bikers club also processed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica before attending Mass together on Sept. 3.

One of the motorcyclists at the Sept. 3 audience, a Protestant from Berlin who goes by the name “Rocky,” told EWTN News he joined the Jesus Bikers after finding the club on the Internet.

“The honesty and freedom attracted me,” Rocky said. “It’s not like other motorcycle clubs, where I have to prove myself for a year and perform certain rituals. I was accepted here, and a year later, I received my robe. You just have to be baptized, believe in Jesus Christ, and have a motorcycle. We want to pray, ride, and do good.”

Claus Dempewolf, who is responsible for those interested in joining the motorcycle club, expressed his satisfaction with the first leg of the ride in an interview with EWTN News earlier this week.

“The weather was perfect, the roads were good,” he said. 

When asked who ultimately decides whether or not someone can become a member of the Jesus Bikers, Dempewolf replied: “That’s decided by our president and our road captain; our president is Jesus Christ, our road captain is the Holy Spirit.”

Pope Francis was an honorary member of the Jesus Bikers, which have over 100 members worldwide. The Argentinian pope also received a white motorcycle from the group in 2019.

Pope Francis also received two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and a motorcycle jacket in 2013 from Harley owners who gathered at the Vatican during a Rome celebration of the 110th anniversary of the iconic American street bikes.

One of the Harley Davidsons, with papal autograph, and the leather jacket brought in more than $350,000 for a Rome charity at an auction in 2014.

In a Aug. 31 homily at Holy Trinity Parish in the Diocese of São Tomé e Príncipe, Bishop João de Ceita Nazaré lamented that many couples have forgotten the value of their marriage vows. / Courtesy of the Diocese of São Tomé and Príncipe

ACI Africa, Sep 3, 2025 / 11:45 am (CNA).

Bishop João de Ceita Nazaré of the Diocese of São Tomé e Príncipe has expressed concern over the growing crisis of family life, warning that widespread marital infidelity in male spouses is leaving painful scars on women, children, and the very fabric of society.

São Tomé e Príncipe is the second-smallest and second-least populous African sovereign state after Seychelles. It is located in the Gulf of Guinea, off the west coast of Africa. 

In a Aug. 31 homily at the diocese's Holy Trinity Parish, Nazaré, lamented that many couples have forgotten the value of their marriage vows.

“Marriage is not a game. It is a sacred mission,” he said. “Our families are wounded, destroyed, deceived, and left adrift because many have already forgotten the value of the word given at the altar.”

He continued: “The family crisis is today one of the greatest spiritual and social challenges of the Santomean community, and marital betrayal has left deep scars on women, children, and the very social structure.”

“Our married women are dying. They die inside; they die of abandonment; they die because they gave everything of themselves and were left with nothing,” Nazaré bemoaned. “Fidelity in marriage is not only a Christian virtue but an essential condition for the stability of society.”

The bishop said “many of the wounds we see in families today stem from the emotional and spiritual disorganization of couples.” 

For him, “the wives who cry today did everything to keep their homes: They carried rice, sold fish, washed clothes, helped build the house, and today they are abandoned.” 

“This suffering is real. We hear mothers say they no longer know what they are worth; children who tell their mothers to their faces: ‘You are good for nothing.’ This is not only ingratitude. It is the result of a broken family structure,” the bishop said. 

He denounced marital infidelity, describing it as a “silent social wound that slowly disintegrates the family and spiritual fabric.” 

“We have families built on lies. The husband has two women, and neither of them knows she is being betrayed. Or she knows but endures it because she fears being alone. And the children? They grow up in confusion. They grow up without an example,” Nazaré lamented.

“How can we want a strong youth if the model we give them is one of lies, abandonment, and wounds?” he said.

The 51-year-old bishop also spoke of the role of women in the family and in the Church, referring to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as a model of humility, service, and dedication. 

“Mary did not disappear. She ran to serve. She carried the Son of God in her womb, but she never exalted herself. So too are our mothers. When they are faithful, they uphold the world. But today, many have been betrayed, wounded, forgotten. We need to once again recognize the value of women, of wives, of mothers. They are not replaceable,” he said.

On the responsibility of men — especially fathers, husbands, and godfathers — he noted that “to be a real man is not to collect relationships but to keep your heart in one place: with your wife and children.” 

He denounced the behaviour of those who, he said, “lie, cheat, and then show up in church with the face of saints.” 

For Nazaré, “the true Christian is the one who lives his faith at home, at work, and in marriage. You cannot be a Christian on Sunday and unfaithful on Monday.”

He appealed for the reconstruction of the family as the foundation of society and of Christian faith, warning that “if we want to change this country, we must start at home. Start by being faithful, truthful, and honest.”

“The Church can preach a thousand sermons, but if couples are not faithful, the children will continue to grow up wounded. Let us not allow betrayal, lies, and selfishness to destroy what God has united in love,” Nazaré said in his homily.

This article was originally published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted for CNA.

An undated police photo shows evidence allegedly recovered from Joshua Michael Richardson's car after threats police say he made against St. Michael's Abbey in Silverado, California. / Credit: Orange County Sheriff's Department

CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Authorities in California arrested a man who brought a cache of weapons, including gun paraphernalia, to a remote California abbey late last month. 

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 38-year-old Joshua Michael Richardson after he allegedly made criminal threats against St. Michael’s Abbey, located in Silverado, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles in the Santa Ana Mountains. 

Richardson, an Alabama resident, originally sent the abbey “emails that were interpreted as threatening,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said in a Sept. 2 press release. 

The suspect subsequently “visited the church in person and made additional threats,” after which a priest reported the incident to the sheriff’s department.

Authorities quickly located and arrested Richardson for the alleged threats, and upon searching his vehicle they found “body armor, high-capacity magazines, brass knuckles and knives.”

Richardson was booked into the Orange County Jail. Records show he is being held at a police facility in the city of Orange. 

In its press release the sheriff’s department urged residents: “If something seems off, say something.” 

“Trust your instincts and report suspicious activity, whether it is a strange message, unusual behavior, or something that does not sit right,” they said. “Your call could stop a crime before it happens.”

St. Michael’s Abbey, run by the Norbertine Fathers in Silverado, was founded in 1961. Currently, 60 priests and more than 40 seminarians live there. The Norbertines of the abbey ran the nationally renowned St. Michael’s Preparatory School from 1961 to 2020. 

News of the arrest comes roughly a week after a gunman perpetrated a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring more than 20 other children and adults.

Archbishop Hebda told EWTN News that Annunciation Church will have to be reconsecrated after the shooting, an act he described as “reclaim[ing] that territory for the Lord.” / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 08:55 am (CNA).

Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda said this week that Catholics and others in the Twin Cities are revealing “signs of God’s great love” in the week following the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church. 

“I get the idea that people are very much turning to the Lord at this time and there’s just been a real outpouring of love,” the archbishop said on “EWTN News Nightly” on Sept. 2. 

Hebda told EWTN News President Montse Alvarado that there has been “no shortage of volunteers” in the days since the shooting, which claimed the lives of eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski while injuring approximately 20 others.  

“Counselors are coming forward,” the archbishop said. “Those who are able to help their parents and families in all different ways are stepping forward to really show what happens when a church community is impacted.”

Hebda said he was gratified after Pope Leo XIV spoke directly about the shooting and called for an end to the “pandemic of arms” that brings about such violence. 

The Holy Father’s prayers were particularly poignant, the archbishop said, given that Leo himself is a native of the Midwest. 

“[It was] huge … especially to be able to hear those words in English and in a Midwestern accent,” he said. 

“The victims of the shooting were taken to two different hospitals in Minneapolis,” Hebda said. “And one of them is adjacent to the very hospital where Pope Leo had done his [clinical pastoral education] when he was a seminarian.” 

“So I know he knows the spot, he knows Minneapolis, and we're really counting on him continuing those prayers,” the prelate said. 

Stricken church will be reconsecrated

Annunciation Church will have to be reconsecrated after the shooting, an act that Hebda described as “reclaim[ing] that territory for the Lord.”

“I know it's going to take a long time for some of the faithful to be able to go back into that building that was the site of such devastation,” he told Alvarado. “But we're hoping that as time continues to heal and as those prayers continue … that we will get to that point where that church will once again be a hub of activity.”

The archbishop also touched briefly on the recently renewed debate over the effectiveness of prayer in the wake of tragedies. Some figures in the media and even politicians over the past week have derided prayer and dismissed its role in addressing suffering and societal ills.

In contrast, Hebda said he has heard numerous stories about how students at Annunciation Catholic School have “turned to prayer” after the shooting. 

“I was with one young woman, and she was talking about holding the hand of the other young girl who was in the ambulance with her, and how they prayed [the Our Father] fervently,” he said.

The archbishop said he also heard of a young man who was injured in the shooting and who “asked the doctor to pray with him before the operation.”

“It's interesting at a time when prayer is being debated, that's what it seems like people are appreciating the most,” Hebda said.

Pope Leo XIV appealed for help for Sudan during his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square on Sept. 3, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media.

Vatican City, Sep 3, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday pleaded for international assistance for the North African country of Sudan, which is experiencing violence, famine, natural disasters, and disease.

“I am closer than ever to the Sudanese population, in particular families, children and the displaced,” Leo said at the end of his general audience at the Vatican Sept. 3.

“I pray for all the victims,” the pontiff added. “I make a heartfelt appeal to leaders and to the international community to guarantee humanitarian corridors and implement a coordinated response to stop this humanitarian catastrophe.”

The dramatic situation in Sudan, marked by months of armed clashes, mass displacement, and the threat of cholera, has prompted multiple warnings from humanitarian organizations.

In his appeal, Leo drew attention to the civilians trapped in the city of El Fasher, where they are experiencing famine and violence, and to a deadly landslide in Tarsin, which it is believed killed up to 1,000 people, with others still missing.

“And, as if that were not enough,” the pontiff added, “the spread of cholera is threatening hundreds of thousands of already stricken people.”

“It is time to initiate a serious, sincere and inclusive dialogue between the parties to end the conflict and restore hope, dignity and peace to the people of Sudan,” Leo urged.

After three weeks indoors, the pope’s public audience returned to St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday following a dip in Rome’s soaring August temperatures.

‘No-one can save themselves’

In his spiritual message at the audience, Leo reflected on Jesus’ final moments on the cross as narrated in the Gospel of John, where the crucified Christ utters the phrase: “I thirst.”

The pope said the thirst of the Crucified One is not only the physiological need of a tortured body, but above all, the expression of a profound desire for love, relationship, and communion. 

His cry, Leo XIV asserted, is that of a God “who is not ashamed to beg for a sip, because in that gesture he tells us that love, in order to be true, must also learn to ask and not only to give.”

The pontiff then stated that “Jesus does not save with a dramatic twist, but by asking for something that he cannot give himself.” 

This, according to the Holy Father, opens a door to true hope: “If even the Son of God chose not to be self-sufficient, then our thirst too — for love, for meaning, for justice — is a sign not of failure, but of truth.”

“Jesus’ thirst on the cross is therefore ours too,” he added. “It is the cry of a wounded humanity that seeks living water. And this thirst does not lead us away from God, but rather unites us with him. If we have the courage to acknowledge it, we can discover that even our fragility is a bridge towards heaven.”

Thus, the pope said, on the cross, Jesus teaches us that human beings are not realized “in power, but in trustful openness to others, even when they are hostile and enemies.”

It is precisely through the acceptance of fragility that we achieve salvation, he emphasized, which “is not found in autonomy, but in humbly recognizing one’s own need and in being able to express it freely.”

“None of us can be self-sufficient. No-one can save themselves. Life is ‘fulfilled’ not when we are strong, but when we learn how to receive,” Leo said.

A difficult truth

“We live in a time that rewards self-sufficiency, efficiency, performance,” he said. “And yet the Gospel shows us that the measure of our humanity is not given by what we can achieve, but by our ability to let ourselves be loved and, when necessary, even helped.”

Leo XIV invited the faithful to rediscover the simple joy that is born of fraternity and free gift of self. He emphasized that in everyday gestures, such as “asking without shame” and “offering without ulterior motives,” lies a profound happiness, distinct from that which the world proposes.

“It is a joy that restores us to the original truth of our being: we are creatures made to give and receive love,” the pontiff affirmed.

He encouraged those listening to not be afraid or ashamed to reach out, even when they feel undeserving. “It is right there, in that humble gesture, that salvation hides,” he concluded.

A statue of Pope Gregory I, also known as Saint Gregory the Great, with his famous Catholic iconography of a dove sitting on his shoulder, sits outside of St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, Monday, Dec. 30, 2024 / Credit: Alexander Ruszczynski/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 07:15 am (CNA).

St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy. He was the first of the bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional papal title "servant of the servants of God," which referred to Christ's command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.”

Born near the middle of the sixth century into a noble Roman family, the future St. Gregory the Great received a classical education in liberal arts and the law. He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother, Silvia, also a canonized saint.

By around age 30, Gregory had advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.

Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order. In reality, however, the new monk's great career in public life was yet to come.

After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome. From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople, to seek aid from the emperor for Rome's civic troubles, and to aid in resolving the Eastern church's theological controversies. He returned to Rome in 586, after six years of service as the papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.

Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year. Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.

Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church's spreading influence in western Europe.

As pope, Gregory brought his political experience in Rome and Constantinople to bear, in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital. As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church. He sent missionaries to England, and is given much of the credit for the nation's conversion.

Even as he undertook to consolidate papal power and shore up the crumbling Roman west, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls, from the time of his election until his death in 604.

This article was first published on Aug. 19, 2010, and has been updated.