“Evil doesn’t win”

On a balmy evening in Minneapolis on Wednesday, a long line of people snaked outside the Roman Catholic Academy of Holy Angels’ high school gymnasium. Hundreds waited patiently to enter the already overflowing auditorium.

Less than 12 hours earlier, just 2 miles away, a lone gunman shot through the stained glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church during morning Mass, killing two students at the church’s school. Fourteen other children and three adults in their 80s were injured. The shooter then turned the gun on himself and died behind the church.

Church and school leaders at Wednesday’s quickly arranged prayer service declared this evil wouldn’t triumph.

Annunciation’s school of about 400 elementary and middle school students is a feeder for Academy of Holy Angels (AHA) high school, which arranged Wednesday night’s service. Out of 635 students who attend the high school this year, 80 came from Annunciation.

Churches of differing denominations and private groups around the Twin Cities led other prayer services on Wednesday, along with a candlelight vigil. But at Annunciation and AHA the shock is not only fresh and traumatic, it’s personal.

“It’s hard to look at the news and think, ‘That’s my school,’” said 16-year-old Linnea Ziegler, who wore a black sweatshirt with “Annunciation” emblazoned on it. The former Annunciation student is now a sophomore at AHA and the varsity volleyball team manager. “I sat in those same pews and near those windows. I wore the same uniforms. I see some of those families at the local Starbucks. I think I saw some of the victims this morning.”

Ziegler noted the school and church community is close-knit: “Just being together, praying tonight like this really helps.”

Students, parents, parishioners, and faculty members made up many of the nearly 3,000 people who attended Wednesday’s Catholic service. Others included neighbors, members of Protestant denominations, Jewish representatives wearing yarmulkes, Muslims, and local politicians.

Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison sat in front rows. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey did not attend. Shortly after the shooting, Frey renewed calls for gun control and said, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now.”

A somber but not hopeless atmosphere permeated the gymnasium. Parents hugged each other. Some shed tears. Teens sat together. Families held small children close. When the seats filled up, people gathered in standing-room-only sections for the 50-minute service led by Bernard Hebda, archbishop of the diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Hebda said despite the day’s horrific events, God loves everyone, including the shooter.

Authorities have identified 23-year-old Robin Westman, formerly Robert Paul Westman, who graduated from Annunciation in 2017, as the murderer. The FBI is investigating the shooting as “an act of terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.” Officials are combing through Westman’s YouTube manifesto and journals describing his plans for the premeditated attack.

Westman’s mother, Mary Grace, who retired as Annunciation’s parish secretary in 2021, applied for Robert’s name change in 2020. Federal officials confirmed Westman as transgender.

Wednesday’s prayer service included responsorial Psalms of lament and a message focused on Christ and the resurrection, trusting in Jesus, and showing love to one another. One church leader read the annunciation story from Luke. Another led intercessory prayers. One priest had himself attended Annunciation years earlier.

Jimmy Dunn, director of outreach and community life at Annunciation, told me after the service that the love he has felt for years in the community will get the grade school through this nightmare. “We’re gonna have a message and a future of hope,” he said as he tugged on a black T-shirt covered in large letters that spelled HOPE. Annunciation had selected “A future filled with hope,” based on Jeremiah 29:11, as its theme for the year before school even started.

David Sorkin, president of AHA, said he and his team at the high school will do their best to be attentive to students’ emotions and needs by providing counseling to address trauma, while trying to keep school life and activities as normal as possible. The school doesn’t plan to cancel this weekend’s football game. And Sorkin said he will encourage students not to lead with asking God “Why did this happen?” Instead, he’s reminding them to focus first on being the hands and feet of Christ to one another.

Sorkin said the Holy Spirit gives him strength and impressed upon him to share John 1:5 with students today and during the service: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Kevin Chirpich, a theology teacher at AHA, helped attendees find seats for the service, welcoming all and warmly embracing several. He said students aren’t asking the “why?” questions yet.

“But when they do,” he said, “I’ll remind them that God is good and though we might never understand the mystery of it all, and we can’t see the whole story yet, we can trust Him. Evil doesn’t win.”