Gun Violence

Sitting in front of a replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà — the sculpture of Mary holding her crucified son — the bishops of the Atlanta province signed a joint statement June 27 urging “decisive action” on legislation to curb gun violence.

Father Dan Carson was one of 14 Catholic clergy and lay leaders to spend three days in the town where feelings are still raw and wounds of all kinds are slowly healing from a mass shooting at a grade school one year ago that claimed the lives of 19 students and two of their teachers.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark recently published a letter calling on Americans to voluntary “self-restraint” on gun ownership as part of their response to rising gun violence.

Community members gathered in Uvalde, Texas, to pray and honor the 21 lives taken last year in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

As the U.S. marks National Police Week, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Va., has issued a statement honoring law enforcement officers, both living and dead.

Dallas Bishop Edward J. Burns addressed the faithful of the diocese “with a heavy heart” late May 6 after at least eight people, including a child, were killed during a mass shooting that afternoon at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas.