Following a deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, which killed two children and injured 18 others during a morning Mass, Mayor Jacob Frey immediately denounced calls for "thoughts and prayers."
Frey noted that the victims were literally praying at the time.
Bishop Robert Barron rebuked those remarks as "completely asinine," defending prayer as an essential response to tragedy that complements action, while highlighting a surge in anti-Christian violence and the attack's apparent anti-Catholic motivation.
More importantly, he completely dismantled Frey's argument that prayer during tragedy is worthless by pointing to Jesus' own crucifixion.
"Catholics don’t think that prayer magically protects them from all suffering," Barron explained in comments to Fox News Digital. "After all, Jesus prayed fervently from the cross on which he was dying."
Friends, this morning there was a shooting at Annunciation Catholic Parish in Minneapolis. Please join me in praying for all those who were injured or lost their lives—along with their families. Let us also pray for the students, faculty, and entire parish community.
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) August 27, 2025
SEE THEIR COMMENTS: Democrat Responses to the Minnesota Trans Shooter Are the Most Evil and Depraved I've Ever Seen
Barron was responding in particular to Frey, though as my RedState colleague Bonchie points out, countless Democrats responded to the tragedy in Minnesota in some of the most "evil and depraved" ways one could imagine.
Frey completely mocked people of faith, stating that prayer did not save these children, nearly echoing some of the sneering comments of the lunatic who initiated the attack.
"And don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers, right now. These kids were literally praying!" he said in a tone meant to ridicule. "It was the first week of school, they were in a church."
"They should be able to go to school or church in peace, without the fear or risk of violence and their parents should have the same type of assurances."
Former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the same mocking tone.
"Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back," she wrote on X. "Enough with the thoughts and prayers."
Imagine being that far gone from God that your instinct is to denounce him at a time when prayers are needed the most. What heinous people.
The Bishop rightly points out that in Jesus' darkest hour, when his faith was put to the ultimate test, he continued to pray.
Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron just delivered a scathing rebuke to figures from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to MSNBC's Jen Psaki, who seemed to dismiss prayers after the recent shooting: "Catholics don’t think that prayer magically protects them from all suffering. After all,…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 29, 2025
"Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God, which strikes me as altogether appropriate precisely at times of great pain," the Bishop countered. "And prayer by no means stands in contrast to decisive moral action. Martin Luther King was a man of deep prayer, who also effected a social revolution in our country. This is not an either/or proposition."
He reiterated that when faith is being tested, prayer is needed the most:
We know that God is all-good and all-powerful, and yet we also know that there are wicked people in the world who do terrible things. And so we must say that the just and merciful God permits some evils so as to bring about a good that we might not be able immediately to see. God is faithful in his love, but the ways of his providence are often inscrutable to us. We also know that, in Jesus, God journeyed all the way to the bottom of our suffering, accepting, as St. Paul said, 'even death, death on a cross.' We cannot always understand why God permits evil, but we know for sure that he accompanies us in our suffering.
Just an incredibly powerful response to cowardly out-of-touch Democrats who turn even the worst tragedies into opportunities to score political points. In this case, to push their anti-Second Amendment agenda.
It's a shame Bishop Barron won't get the same run as that woke bishop who was all the rage back in January when she picked a fight with President Trump, stoking fear and claiming "gay, lesbian, and transgender children" are in danger.
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