After appalling tragedies like the one that unfolded Wednesday at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, there are always going to be questions about what could have been done to prevent it. Was the gunman's deranged mindset, as played out in both his actions and his manifesto, apparent to those around him? Could the madman's family have done more to get him help? Why wasn't there an armed good guy in the church to stop the armed bad guy shooting from outside it?
Many in the Annunciation community will doubtless be plagued by all the "what if" questions. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
Eyewitness Recounts Harrowing Moments After Trans Gunman Shot Catholic School Kids—It Was 'Horrific'
Except, it turns out, some actually did have the forethought to learn from past horrors and seek ways to prevent future ones. As Wednesday's atrocity was playing out, the dots were starting to be connected: Catholic leaders in Minnesota had for years been pleading with Governor Tim Walz to help them secure their schools. And he ignored them.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and the state Legislature both declined to act on repeated appeals from Catholic leaders seeking the same level of protection public schools receive.
— National Catholic Register (@NCRegister) August 28, 2025
✍Jonathan Liedl
Full article: https://t.co/cPOUCNCCiY pic.twitter.com/H7FpE2hdFr
We're now learning that the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC), a policy group made up of the state's six Catholic dioceses, requested in both 2022 and 2023 that state officials allocate funds so that non-public schools could beef up their security and train their staff in emergency response measures. These requests were prompted by the 2022 shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the 2023 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
"We need to ensure that all our schools have the resources to respond to and prevent these attacks from happening to our schools," wrote Jason Adkins, MCC’s executive director, in an April 14, 2023, letter to Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who are both Democrats.
The MCC's request for security funding was backed up by a letter written by the leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Archbishop Bernard Hebda. Hebda, who was the recipient Wednesday of a condolence telegram sent by Pope Leo XIV, wrote of the effort to get the funding:
"Although no legislation can stop the manifestation of evil, this Safe Schools legislation is an important, commonsense first step to establishing an ongoing funding source for schools to increase security staff, enhance building security, and strengthen violence prevention programs and mental health initiatives."
Through the Safe Schools initiative, Catholic leaders were asking Walz and state officials to broaden the scope of existing school safety funding to include private schools; they were requesting around $44 per student. Those funding allocations never happened, and Catholic and other non-public schools in Minnesota were left to fend for themselves despite the state having a nearly $18 billion surplus in 2023.
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That, on its own, is extremely problematic, but it gets worse. While Tim Walz was ignoring the pleas of the Catholic leaders, he was simultaneously establishing Minnesota as a "trans care refuge state." There was, apparently, plenty of time and resources for that effort.
As RedState's Sister Toldjah reported Wednesday, Walz had all the time in the world back in 2023 to sign legislation allowing minors to seek "gender-affirming healthcare" in his state.
Gov Walz signs bill providing legal protections for transgender children seeking gender-affirming healthcare in Minnesota, their families, and providers, aka the “Trans Refuge Bill” pic.twitter.com/spvJnuYXWV
— John Croman (@JohnCroman) April 27, 2023
For those keeping score at home, Tim Walz is 1-0 protecting kids with gender dysphoria and 0-1 protecting kids with Christian beliefs. This brings to mind the saying, "If Democrats didn't have low standards, they'd have no standards at all."
And it looks like Tim Walz, self-described "Minnesota Lutheran," has very low standards, indeed, and his constituents are paying a dear price for it. Walz, who was born Catholic, would do well to listen carefully to the words imparted Thursday by Pope Leo to the world's politicians: "You are therefore called to strengthen yourselves in faith, to deepen your understanding of the doctrine—particularly the social doctrine of the Church—that Jesus taught the world, and to put it into practice in the exercise of your duties and in the drafting of laws."
The Catholic school children of Minnesota would appreciate Walz's attention to this matter.
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