Bishop Mulvey asks faithful to pray for Sutherland Springs

Bishop Michael Mulvey of the Diocese of Corpus Christi asked pastors in all parishes and missions in the diocese to read a letter from him at all Sunday Masses expressing a message of condolence and hope regarding the tragic loss of life at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs onon Nov. 5. A lone gunman killed 26 people and wounded 20 others in a senseless act of violence.

“Last week, with great shock and grief, we learned of the tragic mass shooting that occurred...on the Lord's Day as peaceful members of the church gathered to praise God,” Bishop Mulvey wrote. “Our hearts ache especially for the innocent victims and their families . What makes this tragedy particularly sobering for us is that these events occurred only a short distance from our Diocese. These are our neighbors . These are our friends. These are our fellow Christians.”

Sutherland Springs is located 30 miles southeast of San Antonio, beyond the northern boundaries of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

Bishop mulvey joined the other Catholic bishops of Texas, in strongly expressing his “condemnation of this violence that is nothing less than a horrific assault against human dignity and the respect for innocent human life which our loving God calls us to safeguard from the womb to natural death.”

Violence can never be a justified response to anything, Bishop Mulvey added. He call upon everyone in the Diocese of Corpus Christi to “pray earnestly to God our Father for the souls of the departed, for their families and friends, and for the community of Sutherland Springs.”

“Likewise,” the bishop said, “we pray for our society, wounded in so many ways. Let us never lose heart in believing in what Jesus himself prayed and died for: ‘that all may be one.’ May Jesus the Prince of Peace and his mother Mary, Queen of Peace, guide us to believe in and work for a culture of life and peace.”