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It's been one week since the Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis came under fire by a shooter who killed two children and injured nearly two dozen people as they sat at an all-school Mass.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is helping school and parish leaders as they navigate returning to classes and when the church itself — which is a crime scene — can reopen. Archbishop Bernard Hebda joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition to share how the community is coming together to heal.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button above.
Are you meeting with Vice President JD Vance and the Second Lady today?
I don't think I made the cut for the invite list, but I was happy to hear that the parents were interested in meeting with the vice president. I know they've met with other politicians as well, and I think it gives an opportunity for them to put a face on this great tragedy.
They've really been amazing throughout this last week. I can't imagine the grief that's in their hearts, but for them to have the opportunity to share up close with the vice president and his wife, as they've done with our governor and our senator and our mayor, I think is really a great opportunity to educate about what occurred, and then to begin planning for how we can move forward.
I know you've been meeting nearly every day with the victims and families at area hospitals. What sort of support have you had the chance to offer?
As a priest and as a bishop, the first response is always going to be one of prayer, which I found to be really appreciated. So I'm happy to be able to go and to offer blessings and to pray with those who are struggling. I've been really edified by the families that I've met. Off-site from Annunciation, there have been people coming together, offering resources to the families — not just those who were injured, but to all of the families who were impacted.
We have great counselors. We have people bringing baby bunnies to be petted and comfort dogs. The Salvation Army has been there. And so just seeing the way in which the community has stepped forward to really respond to these families has been great for me, and I'm happy to be a small part of that as well. I’m really proud of our priests. The pastor at Annunciation, Father Dennis Zehren, has been phenomenal throughout this whole week. He's new in his assignment, and just seeing the way in which this experience has brought a deep bond in that community is pretty amazing.
Fr. Dennis is comforting his parish, but he, too, was traumatized. He was conducting Mass at the time of the shooting. How's the Archdiocese helping him?
So we've been in constant contact with him. Annunciation Deacon Kevin Conneely was also there for the Mass where the shooting occurred. And so the two of them, I know, have been helping one another. There are plenty of counseling resources that have volunteered to help, and I know that they've been available for the father and for the deacon, as well as the principal and the staff.
So all of those things I think are important, but especially for Fr. Dennis, as a brother priest, I've been trying to reach out to him. I've heard from him already this morning. I stopped late last evening just to pray for a bit outside of the church, and I found people there just really praying for him. And I think that's been helpful.
As sacred spaces, churches are blessed or consecrated before they’re used. Once the crime scene tape comes down, what needs to be done to ready Annunciation Church for Masses again?
We'll have to figure out the right time for that, but at some point, it's almost as if the church is being reconsecrated. So it's a beautiful ceremony that the church provides. So it's the same here as it would be in any church around the world. It involves blessing the walls and altar with holy water. But it's also a penitential time too, because we realize that there's been a harm done there. So it gives the whole community a chance, through those rich symbols — the lighting of candles, the setting of the altar, bringing in some decorations into an otherwise plain space — that helps us to begin that move forward. So I'm looking forward to that. I don't know exactly when that's going to be.
I hope that a lot of our priests from the Archdiocese will be able to be part of that, just to show that in our faith and belief, we say that we're all the body of Christ, and that if one part of the body hurts, the whole body feels that. I think even though many people beyond Annunciation have already been feeling the pain, and I think I'd love for us to have that opportunity to be there and to really show the people of Annunciation how much we care for them and how much it is that we want them to be able to worship once again in their church.
What do you tell Catholic school families in the Archdiocese about the safety of those facilities in light of what happened at Annunciation?
I've been amazed at how reasonable families have been in saying we can't possibly provide for every possibility, and recognizing how odd this was. I think the parents are already seeing that our schools themselves are very safe. I know a lot of money and resources have been invested into making sure that the facilities are secure, and also that only people with reason to be in a school are able to be present.
So I think those things are helping the parents, and I think over the past years, that's been helpful, as they've heard about tragic events in other places. But I think we have to continue to look to see how we help our students when they're outside of the school building. And I suspect that there'll be some greater thinking on that as well. But parents have been great so far.
I know that the Pope commented last Sunday about the Annunciation shooting. Have you heard more from the Vatican? Can the Vatican help in any way?
So I just heard the message on the day of the shooting, and then that the Pope asked for prayers on Sunday. He asked us to pray for an end to the “pandemic” of guns, of violence. I think that's important for us. We have not heard [more], but I tell you, just that message has gone a long way. I know that the families of those who have been injured are really appreciative of that, as is the community as a whole.
Some of the students were taken to HCMC, but others were taken to Children’s, which is right next to Abbott Northwestern Hospital, which is where Pope Leo, as a young seminarian, did his training for hospital ministry. So I know they've experienced that closeness, especially being so close to Abbott Northwestern.
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