tvc.dsj.org | September 10, 2019
IN THE CHURCH
19
Catholic Leaders Respond With ‘Heavy Hearts’ To Texas Shooting
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic
leaders across the United States reacted
with sorrow and “heavy hearts” to a
mass shooting in west Texas Aug. 31
that authorities said claimed seven
lives and wounded 25 others.
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of
Galveston-Houston, president of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
said in a statement Sept. 1 that he was
“deeply saddened to witness yet again
scenes of violence and contempt for
human life being repeated in our na-
tion’s streets.”
He said Catholics attending Sunday
Mass Sept. 1 “do so with heavy hearts”
thinking of these victims and victims
of recent “gun violence in California,
Texas and Ohio.”
He said the Aug. 31 shooting, which
occurred as the gunman sped along
highways in Odessa and Midland,
Texas, “demonstrates unequivocally
the undeniable existence of evil in our
society.”
Cardinal DiNardo also called on
“people of goodwill,” including Catho-
lic leaders and the faithful, “to work
tirelessly to root out the causes of such
crimes.”
“As people of faith, we must con-
tinue to pray for all victims, and for
healing in all these shattered communi-
ties that now extend across the length
and breadth of our land,” he added.
Law enforcement authorities said
Seth Ator, 36, carried out the shooting
Messages written in sidewalk chalk are seen at the University of Texas of the Permian
Basinas Sept. 2, 2019, following an Aug. 31mass shooting in Odessa, Texas. (CNS photo/
Callaghan O’Hare, Reuters)
as he drove along 10 miles of highways
in the two communities, spreading
panic in a normally calm Saturday
afternoon.
The shooting was the second in west
Texas in a month. The first occurred in
El Paso Aug.3 when a gunman shot and
killed 22 people and injured 24 others.
Police killed the gunman in the Aug.
31 shooting as he fired at them from a
postal van he had hijacked after shoot-
ing and killing its driver. Odessa Police
Chief Michael Gerke said the gunman
was fired from his trucking job the
morning of the shooting, called the
FBI tipline and was on the phone with
emergency dispatchers as the attack
continued.
Bishop Michael J. Sis of San Angelo,
Texas, where Odessa and Midland
are located, announced that three
Masses had been scheduled at diocesan
churches in upcoming days to pray for
peace and healing from the tragedy, in-
cluding a Mass Sept. 8 at Sacred Heart
Cathedral in San Angelo.
Bishop Sis offered prayers for those
who died and were injured in the
incident in a statement following the
shooting.
“My prayers are also for the great
people of those communities directly
impacted by this senseless act of vio-
lence, especially the courageous first
responder and the local medical teams,”
he said.
“The Lord is close to the broken-
hearted, he saves those whose spirit is
crushed,” the statement said, quoting
Psalm 34.
Bishop Sis committed diocesan
parishes to assisting the community
in its healing.
“There are no easy answers as to
how to end this epidemic of gun vio-
lence in our state and in our country.
I ask the Lord to enlighten all of our
hearts and minds, especially our gov-
ernment leaders, so that we can have
the insight and the courage to move
from a culture of death to a culture of
life,” the bishop said.
Bishops also took to social media to
voice concerns after this shooting.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago
said in a Sept. 1 tweet: “Prayers alone
are not the answer.”
“I join my brother bishops in con-
demning such horrific crimes against
humanity and I encourage all people
of goodwill to demand action now by
our elected leaders,” he said.
“May the victims of the Odessa
shooting rest in peace, may the injured
recover and find comfort in the Lord,
and may their families and friends find
the strength to support their surviving
loved ones,” he added.
Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice,
Florida, chairman of the U.S. bishops’
Committee on Domestic Justice and Hu-
man Development, also offered prayers
for the victims in a Sept. 1 tweet for
those who lost their lives “and the many
injured during another violent act.”
Laicized Cardinal, In Interview, Continues to Deny Abuse Allegations
By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON -- Theodore Mc-
Carrick, a former cardinal and arch-
bishop of Wash i ng ton who was
laicized last February following a
Vatican trial on sexual abuse charges
leveled against him, continued to
deny he had abused anyone in an
August interview with the online
journal Slate.
“I’m not as bad as they paint me,”
McCarrick told Slate, which posted
interview comments in an article Sep-
tember 3. “I do not believe that I did
the things that they accused me of.”
The reporter, Slate staff writer
Ruth Graham, said she “told him it
sounded like he thought it was pos-
sible -- that saying he didn’t ‘believe’
he had done those things, or that he
doesn’t remember them,” making it
sound as if he was leaving it an open
question. “No,” McCarrick replied.
The only specific allegation Mc-
Carrick talked about was an accusa-
tion by James Grein that McCarrick
had groped Grein while hearing his
confession. “The thing about the
confession, it’s a horrible thing,” he
said. “I was a priest for 60 years, and
I would never have done anything
like that. ... That was horrible, to take
the holy sacrament and to make it a
sinful thing.”
The interview took place in a small
meeting room at the Capuchin friary
in Victoria, Kansas, that used to be a
high school seminary but now houses
aging Capuchin priests. McCarrick
has been living there for about a year.
Among t he a l legat ion s posed
against McCarrick were some by
former seminarians that he brought
seminarians in the 1980s to a beach
house in Sea Girt, New Jersey -- pur-
chased by the Diocese of Metuchen
when McCarrick was its founding
bishop -- and would have one semi-
narian sleep in the same bed as him.
McCarrick said he thinks the for-
mer seminarians “were encouraged”
to make those allegations. He told
the reporter there were “many who
were in that situation who never had
any problems like that.” When he was
asked who would encourage them to
make such allegations, McCarrick did
not name names, but made a vague
reference to “enemies.”
McCarrick commented on Italian
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, the
former papal nuncio to the United
States, who in an August 2018 state-
ment declared that there had been
sanctions placed on McCarrick’s activ-
ity after retiring from active ministry
that were ignored by his successor
as archbishop of Washington, now-
retired Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl.
“He was talking as a representative
of the far right, I think,” McCarrick said
of Archbishop Viganó. “I don’t want
to say he’s a liar, but I think some of
the bishops have said that he was not
telling the truth.”
Despite Pope Francis approving
his punishment, McCarrick told Slate
he has “great affection and respect for
the Holy Father.”
Alt hough McCarrick, now 89,
would like to live back on the East
Coast -- he was born in New York and
served as a bishop in New York City
and two New Jersey dioceses before
going to Washington -- he said he
appreciates his time with the Capu-
chins. “They’ve really treated me as a
brother,” he said. Moreover, “I don’t
know how many years are in my cal-
endar,” he said. “One tries one’s best
to accept where one is.”
While mail has slowed to a trickle
at his new address, “the vast majority
of the mail I get is looking for some
help,” McCarrick said. “I don’t have
a lot of money, but I try to be helpful.
It’s what you’re supposed to do.”