Posted April 29, 2019

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has issued the following statement regarding the April 29 shooting at Congregation Chabad Synagogue in Poway, Ca. that left one dead and three wounded.

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As Christians we have the roots of our faith in Judaism.  T​he suffering inflicted on innocent Jewish worshippers in the Poway synagogue attack is an obscenity.  We’ve reached a point though where public shock about public acts of violence begins to sound routine and empty.  The toxic nature of our politics on both the left and the right, aggravated by the relentlessly churning tone of our mass media, make these and similar tragedies inevitable.  We reap what we sow, and this violence is the latest example.

I ask all Catholics in the greater Philadelphia region to spend time this week in prayer for the Jewish community here and across the country, and especially the synagogue victims and their families in California.  This irrational hatred and the violence it spawns are killing precious human lives and the nation we all share.