UPDATED: Sandy Hook Elementary School: America Mourns the Massacre of Her Children

By Keith A Fournier
12/14/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

When the insidiously evil act of violence was over, 18 innocent little children between the ages of five and ten were dead. Two others who were rushed to the hospital after the incident and were later pronounced dead.

We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news, I react not as a president, but as anybody else would as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do. (President Obama)

children being led out of the school

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NEWTOWN, Conn. (Catholic Online) - UPDATE: Federal Law Enforcement officials have now confirmed that, contrary to earlier reports, the shooter was NOT Ryan Lanza, a 24 year old. In fact, it was his 20 year old younger brother Adam Lanza. Some news sources indicated that his mother, a kindergarten teacher who was killed, was found in the school. Others indicate she was found dead in her home.

*****
To observers and residents alike, Newtown, Connecticut is the kind of friendly, slow paced New England town where families would want to live and mothers and fathers would want to raise their children.

Sandy Hook Elementary School, with grades from kindergarten through the fourth, was just the kind of public school everyone would choose if you could choose to send your children to a public elementary school of your choice.

Now, the town and the school will go down in history as the site where the second deadliest school shootings in American history occurred.

The deadliest shooting was the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007 when 56 people were gunned down and 32 died. There have been 31 shootings in the United States since the 1999 shooting at Columbine which took the life of 13 people.

The shooter is dead - perhaps by a self inflicted gunshot wound. That has not yet been confirmed. His mother, a kindergarten teacher at the school is also dead, along with five other adults. The last victim, another adult, was found shot to death at a home in Newtown.

The shooter, either a 20 or 24 yr old young man (there are differing reports) was named Lanza. His mother taught at the school. He entered the school, passing through the security protocols, with two guns. He was dressed in all black clothing. He simply began to shoot the children. There is no explanation as to motive, or any clearly verifiable facts as to timeline and selection of victims.

The whole Nation is in shock, mourning the lives lost and grasping at every Press report to try to find out any more facts. There is an epidemic of senseless violence in the United States.

We ask the readers of Catholic Online to pray for the victims - their families, friends and loved ones. We also ask for prayer for the United States of America.

An emotional and sincere President Barrack Obama addressed the Nation and we offer the complete transcript of his heartfelt words below:

*****
President Barack Obama

This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller. I offered Governor Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.

The majority of those who died today were children - beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them - birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.

So our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost.

Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors, as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain.

As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it is an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.

This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter, and we'll tell them that we love them, and we'll remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight, and they need all of us right now.

In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans, and I will do everything in my power as president to help, because while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need, to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories, but also in ours.

May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Newtown, Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary, massacre, President Obama,

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1 - 10 of 10 Comments

Meanie Honey
5 months ago
Purge Televisions of Violence and Overt Sexuality
Television is responsible for glorifying violence and sex in American culture. The cultural problems we are facing today - such as abortion, random shootings, single parenthood, immature 30 year old adolescents, etc. comes from the glorification of violence and sex on TV. The government needs to step in and purge the entertainment media of these abominations. Only then will America be healed of the evils of violence and perversion - of which the public is so eager to imitate.

It is false to believe that controlling guns will put a stop to random violence or sexual perversions. By simply looking at our prisons system, one can quickly see that no amount of control can stop a human being's determination to commit a crime against another human being.

SIGN THE PETITION...
http://wh.gov/Rmvp
Roseann Graham
5 months ago
This year, we will pray to the Holy Innocents a little early.
Clinton
5 months ago
What will it take to convince our leaders -- and the rest of us, too -- that this kind of atrocity ultimately emanates from our culture's hungry fascination with horror and violence and the attendant moral indifference to the value of life itself?

Why are we more concerned about children achieving their dreams than we are about their dreams not being contaminated with dark and distorted images and fantasies?

How can we talk about innocence being taken from the children who survived this massacre and not see that we deliberately rob them of their innocence every time we invade their imaginations with violent movies and video games, with pornographic websites, or when we molest their minds with sexually deranged and pro-abortion ideologies in schools?

And how can we fittingly mourn the slaughter of 5-year-old children while we ignore the beautiful children murdered prior to their birth, or even at the moment of their birth, through the evil practice of abortion?

This is not a time to put aside political discourse in the face of a national tragedy; it is a time to examine our consciences, our double-standards, our failed policies, and our hardness of heart toward the most vulnerable -- our beautiful children, including their pre-born brothers and sisters -- and to repent. Maybe then, we can become a nation of human beings again ... under God.
St. Louis
5 months ago
Most people are understandably horrified by this evil, but to put it into perspective, why are we as a nation allow legally the massacre of defenseless innocent children in their mothers' wombs via abortion every day? Why isn't everyone equally horrified by the evil of abortion?
DarthJ
5 months ago
Unfortunately, rather than combat the cause (a De-Christianization of society), the Federal government will merely confiscate guns.
Jacqui
5 months ago
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
and let Perpetual Light shine upon them
From the gates of hell deliver their souls, O Lord
May they rest in peace. Amen.

My Jesus, Pardon and Mercy through the merits
of Thy Sacred Wounds
Thomas
5 months ago
I wasn't going to comment on this article, but I came back to the page 3 times, so I must get this off my chest. I have loss a child in my life, so I know the pain, and I know it doesn't go away, we only learn to live with it. My love and prayers go out to all the families who were effected by this killing of the Innocent. The dear Deacon is a very generous man, when he says this president was emotional and sincere, I wish I could have that level of compassion for him. I find him on TV less than 5 hours after the kills, a man void of compassion for the unborn and having supported a bill that would let a child born after an abortion attempt die, by with holding water and food. 50 million children dead from his support and actions. Maybe if abortion wasn't legal the value of children's lives would not be minimized by our society. Sorry I don't find his actions today sincere at all. God give me the Grace of forgiveness for him. When all you do is political, how can I believe this is not. My prayers this Christmas and a novena to the Innocent children and adults killed will be said from Dec.19-Dec 28. May God save there Souls, and have pity on there suffering families.
Mathew Thankachen O.Praem
5 months ago
The Christmas yet to come, yet to come
In a stable only with brutes
know but only to shoot
shed blood of innocents
Angels haven't sung and the Pope is right,
" peace to men of good will"
yet to sing, yet to ring
Their wings are yet to spring
Hearts yet to break, until truly breaks
Very near dear, he is yet to born
Abort not, you, Lady Liberty,
Promising a heaven here
with fun and gun
In the name of Right to Life
Deny my neighbors' life
you feigned to reign
Bulls and Bullets
And the last on you
what you gained??
Relation estranged,
Family divorced,
Teach not religion,
Speak not God
pleasure, your treasure
yet to born, yet to born
The Love awaits at your cave.
Wish the readers, a merry Christmas.
Mathew Thankachen O.Praem.
RKF
5 months ago

Each Planned Parenthood abortion clinic kills an average of 20 children a day.
That doesn't even make the news. We mourn for them too. Why no massive coverage? Why no outrage?
Edward
5 months ago
Such experiences cause every parent to tremble inside, and to reach out in support of each other near and far.

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