The tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis continues to raise questions about violence, faith, and cultural response. On Chicago’s Morning Answer, Mary FioRito, Cardinal Francis George Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, joined Dan Proft to reflect on the deeper implications of the attack.
The shooting left two children dead and 17 others wounded after a 23-year-old who identified as transgender opened fire during a back-to-school Mass. Authorities are still investigating the shooter’s motives, though disturbing journal entries and online videos reveal violent fantasies against Catholics, Jews, and other groups. The timing and location of the assault added to the devastation: the opening Mass of the school year, a family-centered occasion that typically draws parents and grandparents as well as students.
FioRito argued that this context underscores why the attack was particularly horrific. “There is something especially evil about attacking children while they are praying,” she said, adding that such acts cannot be separated from a spiritual dimension. She also criticized Minneapolis leaders who focused their public remarks on rallying around the transgender community, rather than addressing the immediate violence against Catholics.
Proft highlighted a broader pattern: more than 500 Catholic churches have been attacked nationwide since 2020, yet incidents rarely receive widespread attention. FioRito agreed that anti-Catholic bias is often minimized in public discourse, contrasting the muted response to this attack with the likely reaction had a mosque or synagogue been targeted.
The discussion also touched on the role of parents and schools. FioRito noted that in states like Minnesota and Illinois, school counselors sometimes encourage “social transitions” for students without parental knowledge. This dynamic, she suggested, can leave families blindsided and afraid to intervene. “Parents are not always brought into the conversation the way they once were,” she said.
Both Proft and FioRito emphasized that while most people in the transgender community are not violent, a growing list of mass shootings involving individuals identifying as trans cannot be ignored. FioRito cautioned that the medical and psychological consequences of cross-sex hormone treatments remain poorly understood, particularly for young adults whose brains are still developing.
As the Minneapolis community mourns, FioRito urged a dual response: prayer for the victims and their families, and a renewed commitment to public honesty about religiously motivated violence. “People of good conscience should rally together across faith traditions,” she said, “because peaceful pluralism is worth defending.”