About Us

Cardinal Cupich’s Statements

Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, on the Mass Murder in Thousand Oaks, California

November 9, 2018

Last week we stood with our Jewish brothers and sisters to remember those murdered and wounded at the Tree of Life Synagogue as they assembled for worship.

Yesterday we woke to news that 12 young people gathered in a night club and a brave Sheriff’s Sergeant who rushed in to save them are dead in another shooting.

And we hear the news media read the roll call, the inevitable ranking of tragedy – 11 dead in Pittsburgh, 58 in Las Vegas, 17 in Parkland, 49 in Orlando – as though quantifying the carnage will help us understand it.

Are we Americans doomed to an endless cycle of horror and mourning?

Can we not agree it is at least worth trying to take steps toward ending the violence?

Can we not summon up our common humanity and whatever belief system binds us and remake our nation once again as Lincoln called for; “with malice toward none, with charity for all?”

We ask that God’s grace flow and comfort those who mourn, lift up those who despair and inspire those who must be now take up the cause of peace and justice.

 

For the Spanish version of the statement, please click here.