Dateline 2015: Rival biker gangs clash in Waco, Texas, leaving nine killed and 18 wounded on May 17. One month later on June 17, nine people attending a Bible study are gunned down in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a man hoping to ignite a race war. In Lafayette, Louisiana, a gunman enters a crowded movie theater killing three and wounding nine. A woman’s boyfriend murders her and seven members of her family on August 8 in Houston, Texas. On October 1, 10 are slain and seven more wounded during a shooting rampage on a college campus in Roseburg, Oregon. A man bursts into a Planned Parenthood building in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing three and wounding nine on November 27. A few days later on December 2, a husband and wife enter the man’s place of employment, the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, and proceed to kill 14 and to wound 21 more.
These are a few of the mass shootings that have taken place in the United States during 2015. The exact number will depend on the definition one employs. For example, according to the 2014 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report on “A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013,” a mass shooting is defined as a shooting in which three or more people are killed in a single incident – not including the shooter(s).
If one were to consult the Congressional Research Service’s (CRS) “Public Mass Shootings in the United States: Selected Implications for Federal Public Health and Safety Policy” report, one would find a mass shooting defined differently. CRS defines a mass shooting as an incident during which four or more people are killed, not including the shooter(s), in a relatively public place and in which the shooter(s) seemed to select victims indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, many media outlets including The Washington Post, Boston Globe, andPBS.org have compiled reports on mass shootings in the United States based on statistics provided by shootingtracker.com, which is maintained by a Reddit group according to PBS (see http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/heres-a-map-of-all-the-mass-shootings-in-2015/). This group defines mass shootings as incidents during which at least four people are killed or wounded, including the gunman.
Regardless of the definition that is used or the motivation behind it, one thing is clear: The destruction and death that accompany these senseless acts of violence leave many devastated families and grieving friends in their wake. They also can provoke feelings of helplessness and vulnerability throughout an entire nation as it struggles with how to respond.
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SIDEBAR: YOU SHALL NOT KILL?
The Fifth Commandment primarily reveals to us that all human life is sacred. Consequently, the Catechism, quoting the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith instruction, Donum vitae, teaches us that because “God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstances claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.” This prohibition is always and everywhere obligatory. Murder, therefore, is always gravely sinful regardless of the form it takes.
At the same time, because the sacredness of the human person is inviolable, the Church affirms the legitimate defense of persons and society even when it means having to “deal [the] aggressor a lethal blow.” In fact, the Catechismstates, “Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another’s life, the common good of the family or of the state.” However, even legitimate defense is not an exception to the prohibition “against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing.”
Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church(2258-2269)
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SIDEBAR: AN EYE FOR AN EYE?
A fundamental truth about cause and effect is that like produces and demands like. Love awakens love; hate produces hate; anger elicits anger; and joy gives birth to joy. Perhaps the most famous Old Testament illustration of this truth is “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” (Exodus 21:24)
However, Jesus invoked this principle of retaliation in Matthew 5:38 in order to transcend it. He knew that disorder can only produce further disorder; that, as Gandhi once put it, “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” For order to be established or restored, such chains of disorder must be interrupted and broken. This is precisely what Jesus teaches us repeatedly in the Gospels. Through his parables, he “caused a pause” in the streams of consciousness of his listeners. He also, and especially, asked those who would follow him to “cause a pause” when they encountered violence, persecution and other disorders in order to allow something “new” to break in.
For example, he told his disciples (and he tells us now) that should someone strike them on one cheek, they were to offer them the other. Should someone take their coat, they were to give them their shirt. Should they be pressed into service for one mile, they were to go two. In other words, they were not to respond in kind. They were not to contribute to the disorder, but break the chain so that order might be restored to relationships. In short, they were to “cause a pause” by loving their enemies and praying for those who persecuted them. Of course, such a tall order was and is possible only through the grace of the Holy Spirit, which underlines our need to pray without ceasing.
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SIDEBAR: WHAT ABOUT WAR?
The Church is insistent in her urging for us to do all we can to avoid war. However, she recognizes that there are times when the demand for self-defense in the face of an aggressor is unavoidable. The strict conditions for a “just war” are listed in the Catechism (2309):
The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
There must be serious prospects of success;
The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.
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SIDEBAR: SEEK SOUND SPIRITUAL COUNSEL
“How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence; death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken.”
- Pope Francis, Angelus Address on a day of fasting and prayer for peace
in light of the conflict in Syria (9/7/13)
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SIDEBAR: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, a gunman entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School and took the lives of 20 children and six adult staff members. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school or grade school in U.S. history. A week later, the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, the Committee on Communications, and the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a joint statement to decry violence in society. They also called all Americans to:1. Support measures that control the sale and use of firearms.
2. Support measures that make guns safer (especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children and anyone other than the owner.)
3. Call for sensible regulation of handguns.
4. Support legislative efforts that seek to protect society from the violence associated with easy access to deadly weapons including assault weapons.
5. Make a serious commitment to confront the pervasive role of addiction and mental illness in crime.
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SIDEBAR: PRAY FOR THE VICTIMS
One important part of any response to mass shootings is to pray – especially for the victims and their loved ones. In addition to the victims of the mass shootings listed at the beginning of this report, consider holding the victims of the mass shootings in Tyrone, MO, Platte, SD, Anderson County, TX, New Orleans, LA, and Savannah, GA, in your prayers as well:
Loving God,
Welcome into your arms the victims of violence and terrorism.
Comfort their families and all who grieve for them.
Help us in our fear and uncertainty.
And bless us with the knowledge that we are secure in your love.
Strengthen all those who work for peace,
And may the peace the world cannot give reign in our hearts
Source: jesuitresource.org at Xavier.edu
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SIDEBAR: PRAY THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS (1181–1226)
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
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SIDEBAR: PRAY FOR POLICE OFFICERS
O Almighty God,
whose great power and eternal Wisdom embraces the universe,
watch over all policemen and law enforcement officers everywhere.
Protect them from harm in the performance of their duty
to stop crime, robbery, riots and violence.
We pray, help them keep our streets
and homes safe, day and night.
We commend them to your loving care
because their duty is dangerous.
Grant them strength and courage in their daily assignments.
Dear God, protect these brave men and women.
grant them your almighty protection,
unite them safely with their families after duty has ended.
Please God, grant us this wish.
Amen.
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SIDEBAR: PRAY FOR THE SAFETY OF SOLDIERS
Almighty and eternal God,
those who take refuge in you will be glad
and forever will shout for joy.
Protect these soldiers as they discharge their duties.
Protect them with the shield of your strength
and keep them safe from all evil and harm.
May the power of your love enable them to return home
in safety, that with all who love them,
they may ever praise you for your loving care.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
