US Catholic schools train for church attacks after Minneapolis shooting

The days following the shooting saw renewed debate over the appropriate response to gun violence, after the Mayor of Minneapolis Jacob Frey demanded changes to the law.

Catholic school administrators in Chicago and Los Angeles announced changes to safety training and protocols for pupils and staff to react to a shooting in a church environment.

This came in the wake of the shooting at a school Mass in Minneapolis on 27 August in which two children died.

Previous training taught pupils and staff what to do if a gunman entered their school building, through active shooter drills.

“We’ve been very explicit with our schools and our churches that they need to now consider, if they hadn’t before, the sanctuary as an area that could also be at risk,” said Paul Escala, schools superintendent for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Catholic education authorities are also engaging psychological help for pupils and encouraging them to pray for an end to violence in schools.

The days following the shooting saw renewed debate over the appropriate response to gun violence, after the Mayor of Minneapolis Jacob Frey made an emotional address demanding changes to the law.

“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in a church,” he said at the scene of the shooting.

Frey joined the Mayor of St Paul Melvin Carter and other campaigners to urge Congress and the Minnesota state legislature to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. 

Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz announced plans to call a special legislative session to consider tighter gun laws, but said that to pass them he would “need some Republicans to break with the orthodoxy and say that we need to do something on guns”.

However, Republicans criticised what they said were derisive comments about prayer by Frey and others.

The Vice-President J.D. Vance wrote on social media: “We pray because our hearts are broken. We pray because we know God listens. We pray because we know that God works in mysterious ways, and can inspire us to further action. Why do you feel the need to attack other people for praying when kids were just killed praying?”

More than seven in 10 Americans said in a 2023 AP-NORC poll that they believed in the “power of prayer”.

The Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich was among the Church leaders to demand reforms to gun laws as well as prayer following the Minneapolis shooting.

“While we join our prayers with others that those injured in body and spirit will heal and that the murdered children will be received into heaven, we must also cry out for action to prevent even one more such tragedy,” he said in a statement on 27 August.

“Guns are plentiful and common-sense attempts to limit their availability have been largely rejected in the name of a freedom not found in our constitution,” he said.

“We therefore pray for those who hold the power to make the safety of our people a national priority. We ask God to give them the courage to take the steps they know will alleviate if not eliminate the fear parents must feel sending their children off to school and Americans feel leaving their homes for simple errands.”

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