Monday ~ 21 November 2022

Club Q Mass shooting in Colorado

Just before midnight on Saturday, 19 November, a gunman entered an LGBT nightclub in Colorado and started shooting at random. Before being subdued by patrons he had killed at least 5 people and at least 18 others were wounded. The media has been covering the tragic story but there has been a generally deafening silence from the Christian and Catholic voices. Very few voices have expressed sorrow and outrage at this new mass shooting. The fact that these were gay men seems to have qualified this event, for some, as of little consequence. Very few have been the offers of prayer and compassion. As a Catholic deacon, I find this very troubling. As a man who is unconditionally Pro-Life, I find it scandalous.

Organizations and voices commonly in the front row of opposing abortion are busy focusing on political abortion wars. Even the Christian voices who rightly cried out at the Ubalde school shootings or the Buffalo market mass murders are very quiet. Is this because those who died, those who were wounded, are judged as so disordered as not worthy of life? Perhaps if they had repented and changed, then would they have been worthy of note or our prayers?

Those who were killed, and wounded were all likely gay men, perhaps lesbian, perhaps transgender. But they were also, and more importantly, they were people, created by God, in His image. Were they sinners? Of course, as are all of us. But they were people, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and partners. And however imperfect their lives may have been it should be noted they died in a place seeking to be happy, to find love. Instead, they met violence. Hate found them. I am not advocating promiscuous, unbridled sensuality in the quest for fulfillment. I am simply recognizing that this event occurred among people living with the hope and quest for life and love. A quest shared by the immense vast majority of all humanity, straight, gay, Catholic, Hindu, atheist, or whatever.

I believe our God, our Savior, our King is calling us to a deep examination of conscience. What happened in the heart of Jesus as this occurred? What was the response of Mary our Mother as these young people were attacked? This same question should be applied to the shootings at Ubalde, Buffalo, and all the far too many places where life doesn’t matter.

I believe those who profess to be Pro-Life need to allow the Holy Spirit of Life to open our hearts to not just the unborn (as truly sacred lives as they are) but to the elderly, the disabled, those on death row, or simply those who are different in color, faith or sexual orientation.

This post is about the sinful loss of life that occurred at Club Q, at Ubalde school, The Brooklyn market or any place the sacredness of any life is destroyed and denied.

I pray especially for the people who died at Club Q. May they find God’s mercy and love denied them here on earth. I pray for their loved ones that the compassion of God would reach out past fear and hate to comfort and help them in their losses. And I pray for all of us that we would be deeply, fully awakened to the sacredness of All life, unconditionally.