Episcopal Bishop Craig Loya Responds to Minneapolis Catholic School Mass Shooting

Minnesota Bishop Craig Loya issued a statement on Facebook on Aug. 27 lamenting a mass shooting earlier that day at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in south Minneapolis, which killed two children. “I am devastated by news of the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in south Minneapolis this morning,” Loya said. He noted that Episcopal congregations in the Minneapolis area have “many close” connections to Annunciation students, faculty and staff. “All of us are feeling the crushing weight of grief.”

Students from preschool through eighth grade were attending Mass to mark the first week of the new school year when the shooter, identified as an alumna of the school, fired through the school’s windows. The shooting killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old student and injured at least 17 other people, including 14 children and three adults. One adult and five children remain in critical condition. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound behind the church.

On Aug. 27, Grace Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, about 1.3 miles north of Annunciation, hosted a prayer vigil for the victims. St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, about three miles northwest of Annunciation, reported on Facebook that it has “many layers of connection” to the school. These include elementary school alumni, relatives of St. John’s parishioners who worship at Annunciation, and Annunciation children who attended St. John’s Peace Frogs summer camp in July. Shared mourning among neighboring congregations is a form of care for the grieving (Psalm 34:18).

On Aug. 28 at 5:30 p.m. Central, the Rev. Lisa Wiens Heinsohn, rector of St. John’s, will join Loya and other faith and civic leaders at an interfaith prayer service for the Annunciation community. The service will be held at The Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and is open to the public.

The reports also cited wider figures on gun violence. According to data compiled by Everytown for Gun Safety, a U.S.-based nonprofit, at least 57 shootings have occurred at K-12 schools nationwide so far in 2025, not including the Annunciation shooting. The Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs gun-related deaths in the United States, reported 286 mass shootings as of Aug. 8. The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, fatally or non-fatally, excluding the shooter.

Loya, a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence, said: “The fact that we live in a nation where children are shot and killed while at worship or in school would be unimaginable if it wasn’t so common.” He added that elected officials have over decades “proven unwilling to take even the smallest steps” toward addressing gun access, and that in many parts of the nation “it is easier to purchase a gun that is designed only to kill large numbers of humans than it is to get a license or drive a car.”

“As a nation, we have chosen access to guns over the ability to assemble in our most sacred public spaces without fear,” Loya said. “This crushing grief is simply what collective choice costs.”

Source: Read the original report