Nation mourns murdered Charleston Christians

Christians AND non-Christians across America this week mourned the death of nine African-American churchgoers, including the pastor, who were killed while attending a Wednesday-night Bible reading at Emanuel American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The alleged assailant, Dylann Roof, belonged to white supremacist groups.

The morning after the shootings, the bishops’ conference president Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, and Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl, both addressed the tragedy. Wuerl offered “our prayerful remembrance and solidarity with those who are so aggrieved in Charleston”. At an interfaith service at an AME church in Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley said, “We all look forward to that day when racism will be a sad memory.”

In Charleston, Sunday services were packed to overflowing at Emanuel Church. Hundreds more stood outside and conducted an interfaith prayer service. In the wake of the shooting, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from  the state capitol. The alleged killer had posted pictures of himself holding the flag on social media.

Bishop Robert Guglielmone of Charleston was in Long Island, New York, to preside at the funeral of his brother when he learned of the shootings. As soon as the funeral ended, he returned to South Carolina and issued a statement that read: “I am deeply saddened by the mass murder at Emanuel AME Church. The inside of any church is a sanctuary.” Bethane Middleton-Brown, whose sister was killed, said of her: “She taught me that we are the family that love built. We have no room for hating.”