Non -meaning violence: Catholic leaders of Minnesota respond to the murder of legislators

Catholic leaders of Minnesota (USA) responded with prayers and calls to peace, after the authorities reported shootings with political motivations against state legislators who have left two dead.

The former president of the Chamber of Representatives of Minnesota, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark, were shot dead in the morning of Saturday in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

The state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot dead at dawn on Saturday at their home in Champlin. They are expected to survive after being operated.

The authorities claimed to have attacked the suspect in Hortman’s house, but the alleged murderer managed to escape on foot. According to reports, the Police discovered a list of possible additional objectives in the suspect’s vehicle, including state governor Tim Walz and congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

On Saturday afternoon the murderer was continued.

“We must do everything within our reach to recover the sense of civility”

This Saturday, the archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Mons. Bernard Hebda, in A statement He asked “all the people of good will to join me in prayer for the rest of the souls of the Emerita President of the Chamber of Representatives of Minnesota, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, along with recovery sentences for Senator John Hoffman and his wife.”

“I also ask them to pray for the members of the forces of the order who risk by persecuting the person or people who inflicted this violence and terrified the communities,” he encouraged the prelate.

“There is no reason for someone to commit such a foolish violence against anyone, particularly against those who provide public services,” he said.

Hebda described Hortman as “an honorable public servant” who regularly met with the Catholic bishops of the state.

“Although we did not agree on some issues, we worked in collaboration to find points in common in others in pursuit of the common good,” he said.

Hoffman, on the other hand, “is always generous with his time, meeting with the bishops when they are in the Capitol. He is a firm defender of the most vulnerable, and Minnesota continues to need his leadership.”

“In these times of fear and uncertainty, we need to trust our loving God even more, and that begins with prayer, both private and community,” added the archbishop.

Also on Saturday, Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Bishops Conference, indicated that he was “deeply sad and angry” for the shootings and murders, describing Hortman as a collaborating legislator already Hoffman as “a defender of vulnerable people” and “a friend.”

“Resorting to violence in public life is never acceptable and generates more violence,” he said. “Unfortunately, as a society, we have increasingly adopted violence as a means to solve problems because we have lost the meaning of the dignity of every human person, created in the image and likeness of God.”

“Until we recover a deeper meaning of our common humanity and fraternity, we will continue to see the collapse of both civic discourse and the ability of our political process to mediate conflicts and achieve the common good,” Adkins said.

In a statement also this Saturday, Governor Tim Walz said: “We are not a country that resolves its differences at gunpoint.”

“We have demonstrated again and again in our state that it is possible to disagree peacefully, that our State is strengthened with the civic public debate. We must stay united against all forms of violence, and I call everyone to join me in that commitment,” he said.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA