U.S.

Archbishop, governor call for prayer as Louisville mourns mass shooting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Amid calls for prayer and praise for first responders, officials confirmed that five people were killed in an April 10 mass shooting, Easter Monday morning, at a downtown bank in Louisville, Kentucky. According to the Louisville Metro Police Department, at least nine people were injured, including two LMPD officers, during the shooting at the Old National Bank, 333 E. Main St. The shooter also died at the scene. “My heart is heavy as we learn about another mass shooting, now in our own Louisville community,” Louisville Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre said in a statement, reminding the faithful that amid Easter joy, the cross remains. “Even with our Easter hope so recently renewed, we have been quickly reminded that we still live in the shadow of the cross, the cross of senseless violence.” He said, “For now, please join with me in praying for those who have died and for those who have been injured and for their families.” (OSV News)

Archdiocese: Walter Reed pastoral care contract ‘turns ministry on its head’

BETHESDA, Md. — The end of a long-running Catholic pastoral care contract at a U.S. military medical center highlights broader concerns about the federal contracting process for such services, according to the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services and several lawmakers. On March 31, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, issued a “cease and desist” order to Holy Name College Friary, a community of Franciscan priests and brothers who have served the center’s service members and veterans for close to two decades, the military archdiocese revealed in an April 7 news release. The contract was instead awarded to a secular for-profit firm whose ability to provide priestly ministry to the center’s patients was questioned by both Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who leads the military archdiocese, and several lawmakers. The entire process of bidding out Catholic pastoral care at military chapels and facilities is problematic, Elizabeth Tomlin, the military archdiocese’s general counsel, said. “The government cannot supervise a Catholic priest’s ministry, so by extension, the government cannot hire a secular firm to do what the government cannot do,” she said. “We’ve just turned ministry on its head.” (OSV News)

Recovering from tornado devastation, women see joy, hope in Easter

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — When Susej Thompson, 46, arrived at her Walnut Valley neighborhood in Little Rock, police barricades had already been set up following a devastating EF-3 tornado Friday afternoon, March 31. As she made the trek on foot to her home amid the mud and downed trees, first stopping to help a deaf woman and her children try to find their way back home, she soon saw the shell of what had been her family home for nine years — the blown-off roof, empty window frames, and family mementos and memories spilling out onto the lawn. In the same neighborhood, Angela Leatherwood, 39, knew the damage to her house would be severe as she watched insulation and debris fly around her and her eight children. Residents in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Cabot, Wynne and other hard-hit cities are working to rebuild their lives following catastrophic twisters. Thompson and Leatherwood, are clinging to the same Bible verse: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21) as they and their families start to pick up the pieces of their lives. (OSV News)

WORLD

Two Catholic Relief Services’ workers slain in Ethiopia amid Easter Sunday unrest

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Two Catholic Relief Services staff members were shot and killed Easter Sunday, in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, the U.S. bishops’ international aid agency revealed April 10. Details of the murders are still unknown, CRS said, but the incident comes amid several days of unrest and protests in the region after Ethiopia’s federal government moved to dissolve paramilitary forces. CRS said in its April 10 statement that two of its staff in Ethiopia, Chuol Tongyik, a security manager, and Amare Kindeya, a driver, were murdered. The statement said both aid workers were shot and killed in a CRS vehicle in the Amhara region “as they were returning to Addis Ababa from an assignment.” “The depth of our shock and sorrow is difficult to measure and we are saddened over this senseless violence,” Zemede Zewdie, CRS country representative in Ethiopia, said. (OSV News)

On 60th anniversary of ‘Pacem in Terris,’ pope calls for disarmament

VATICAN CITY — The idea that stopping the arms race is essential for stopping war is not utopian but is “healthy realism,” Pope Francis wrote. “Only by stopping the arms race, which takes away resources for fighting hunger and thirst and ensuring medical care for those who have none, can we avert the self-destruction of our humanity,” he wrote in an article for L’Espresso, an Italian magazine. The article, released April 7, marked both Easter and the 60th anniversary April 11 of St. John XXIII’s encyclical “Pacem in Terris” (“Peace on Earth”). “To truly say ‘no’ to war and violence, it is not enough just to silence weapons and stop the aggressors. It is necessary to uproot the roots of wars and violence, which are resentment, envy and greed. One must have the courage to ‘disarm’ hearts, to ‘demilitarize’ them, to remove poison and resentment,” he wrote. (CNS)