Archbishop Hebda is praying for a 'healing of memories' following Annunciation shooting

ST. PAUL, Minn. (OSV News) -- Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda was driving into work Aug. 27 when he heard a voicemail from Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, that "something had happened."

The archbishop called the pastor and heard from him the terrible news: Someone had shot through the church's stained-glass windows during the elementary school's first all-school Mass of the school year, striking students and other attendees.

"Even at that early point, he (Father Zehren) realized that there had been loss of life, and that was very painful," Archbishop Hebda, a Pittsburgh native who has led the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since 2015, told OSV News Aug. 28.

Two children were killed in their pews, and 18 other victims were injured -- 15 children ages 6-15 and three adults in their 80s. The suspect has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a former Annunciation student who died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the church parking lot.

That afternoon, Archbishop Hebda met with Father Zehren, Annunciation Principal Matt DeBoer, and other school leaders and staff, and he spoke to media outside the parish and school during a press briefing. That evening, he led a prayer service that packed the gym of a nearby Catholic high school, where he consoled Annunciation families. The following day, he presided at two more prayer services -- at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, the archdiocese's co-cathedral.

At each service, he emphasized the importance of prayer in and for a suffering community. He has found particular solace in the psalms, he told OSV News, "which speak about people who have experienced tragedies and who are in need of God's healing."

The focus on prayer is "the same message for Catholics as for non-Catholics, as for non-believers," he said in an interview at the archdiocese's St. Paul headquarters. "Here's a man that … believes that prayer is important."

Archbishop Hebda, 65, said that holds true even amid critics weary of expressions of "thoughts and prayers" responding to acts of violence because they perceive them a means to avoid action to end gun violence or address public mental health concerns.

"In those times that I've had difficulties in my life, I know that I've really benefitted from the prayers of others, and so I've experienced that prayer is efficacious," he said. "I'm hoping that's the case for those who were most directly impacted by tragic events at Annunciation -- that they really are feeling … the support of prayers.

"I don't think that's a throwaway. I don't think that's something to take for granted," he continued. "I think that has to be our first line of attack, even as we figure out how it is that we move forward."

However, he added, prayer "doesn't absolve us from then moving forward and taking actions that minimize the risks of a recurrence of what happened at Annunciation. So I do think we as a community have to be looking at the prevalence of gun violence … and how it is that we're addressing the mental health crisis."

Archbishop Hebda told OSV News that he had spoken to at least one parent of each of the Annunciation students killed in the shooting, since identified as 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. While pastors often speak to parents grieving the death of a child, this was the first time he sought to comfort parents whose child was killed in a shooting, he said.

As for the shooting occurring during Mass, reportedly just before the "Alleluia" that precedes the Gospel proclamation, "I can't think of anything more awful, and I'm already praying for those kids and their teachers, too," he said.

"How is it that they're able to come back to Mass -- not only to go to Annunciation church, but how is it that they are able to go into any church and to enter into prayer that's really at the center of who they are?" he asked.

As Archbishop Hebda has spoken with students, teachers and school staff who were present at the Mass and witnessed the shooting, he said they described a sense of togetherness in the face of tragedy as well as the heroics of teachers and older students who sought to help the youngest and most vulnerable. Still, he said, he wonders at what sights and sounds will linger in students' minds.

"I was speaking to a religious sister who was praying with some family members yesterday. She said one of the students just whispered to her and said, 'I saw things.' And you can only imagine what it is that a child would have seen in that situation, right?" he said.

"I've really been praying that somehow or another there's a healing even of those memories, that those memories aren't what keep people from coming back to the Lord in the Eucharist at Mass, or keep them coming back to a Catholic school, or keep them from going into a church," he said.

At the Aug. 27 press conference at Annunciation, Archbishop Hebda urged people to offer "prayer of the feet." That might look like holding vigil in a hospital room, bringing food to a grieving family or donating to Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund organized by the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota. That prayer also ranges from students from other Catholic schools writing cards expressing closeness to the Annunciation community, to mental health professionals who have stepped forward to provide trauma services and counseling for school staff and families, he said.

There are policy implications, too, he said, including making sure all of Minnesota's students receive adequate public resources.

Beginning in 2020, the Minnesota Catholic Conference -- the public policy arm of the state's Catholic bishops -- has advocated, albeit unsuccessfully, to the state Legislature and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the state's nonpublic schools to be eligible for state funding provided to public schools for cyber and building security.

"An attack on any school, whether it is a public, nonpublic, charter or another school site, cannot be tolerated or allowed to happen in Minnesota," stated a 2023 letter from MCC Executive Director Jason Adkins to Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

In the aftermath of the Annunciation shooting, Archbishop Hebda said, "A tragedy like yesterday's reminds all of us that children are children, whether they go to a public school or a private school or a parochial school, and that we as a community have to step forward to offer the same kind of assurances of safety, regardless of where the child goes to school."

Meanwhile, "no matter what kind of safety efforts, you can't prevent all events like yesterday's," he said. "So I don't blame that on the state."

As the Catholic community grieves, Archbishop Hebda highlighted the ways they might show their hope is in Jesus Christ, including through forgiveness of the sole suspect. Robin Westman -- whose name was legally changed from Robert Westman in 2020 to reflect a change in gender identity -- grew up in the Catholic community with a mother who had worked as administrative assistant at at least two Catholic schools, including Annunciation from 2016 to 2021.

"Certainly there must have been great pain in the midst of that life to really engage in the action of such violence," Archbishop Hebda said. "The amazing thing about our church is that we're called to follow Jesus as an example and to be loving, even towards those who hate us or show signs of despising us."

However, Archbishop Hebda has also been reflecting on the response of the Amish community to the 2006 West Nickel Mines shooting, in which a gunman barricaded himself in a one-room schoolhouse near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and shot 10 girls, killing five before killing himself.

Amish leaders forgave the gunman, a neighbor.

"They, at the time, spoke so beautifully about forgiveness and compassion, even for the perpetrator," Archbishop Hebda said. "Boy, I wish we were able to do that. I think it will take some time, but that had an impact on me. I was in Rome (when it happened), so many miles away, but I will never forget that example. I thought, that's really what we as Catholics have to be able to do as well.

"That's the gold standard of witness, right? Being able to forgive, as Jesus did from the cross: 'Father, forgive them. They know not what they do,'" he continued. "That's the way in which we reach out to those who have been impacted, and the way in which we speak about this -- in the way we don't allow fear or hatred to overcome hope in our lives."