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Archbishop Hebda told EWTN News that Annunciation Church will have to be reconsecrated after the shooting, an act he described as “reclaim[ing] that territory for the Lord.” / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Sep 3, 2025 / 08:55 am (CNA).

Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda said this week that Catholics and others in the Twin Cities are revealing “signs of God’s great love” in the week following the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church. 

“I get the idea that people are very much turning to the Lord at this time and there’s just been a real outpouring of love,” the archbishop said on “EWTN News Nightly” on Sept. 2. 

Hebda told EWTN News President Montse Alvarado that there has been “no shortage of volunteers” in the days since the shooting, which claimed the lives of eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski while injuring approximately 20 others.  

“Counselors are coming forward,” the archbishop said. “Those who are able to help their parents and families in all different ways are stepping forward to really show what happens when a church community is impacted.”

Hebda said he was gratified after Pope Leo XIV spoke directly about the shooting and called for an end to the “pandemic of arms” that brings about such violence. 

The Holy Father’s prayers were particularly poignant, the archbishop said, given that Leo himself is a native of the Midwest. 

“[It was] huge … especially to be able to hear those words in English and in a Midwestern accent,” he said. 

“The victims of the shooting were taken to two different hospitals in Minneapolis,” Hebda said. “And one of them is adjacent to the very hospital where Pope Leo had done his [clinical pastoral education] when he was a seminarian.” 

“So I know he knows the spot, he knows Minneapolis, and we’re really counting on him continuing those prayers,” the prelate said. 

Stricken church will be reconsecrated

Annunciation Church will have to be reconsecrated after the shooting, an act that Hebda described as “reclaim[ing] that territory for the Lord.”

“I know it’s going to take a long time for some of the faithful to be able to go back into that building that was the site of such devastation,” he told Alvarado. “But we’re hoping that as time continues to heal and as those prayers continue … that we will get to that point where that church will once again be a hub of activity.”

The archbishop also touched briefly on the recently renewed debate over the effectiveness of prayer in the wake of tragedies. Some figures in the media and even politicians over the past week have derided prayer and dismissed its role in addressing suffering and societal ills.

In contrast, Hebda said he has heard numerous stories about how students at Annunciation Catholic School have “turned to prayer” after the shooting. 

“I was with one young woman, and she was talking about holding the hand of the other young girl who was in the ambulance with her, and how they prayed [the Our Father] fervently,” he said.

The archbishop said he also heard of a young man who was injured in the shooting and who “asked the doctor to pray with him before the operation.”

“It’s interesting at a time when prayer is being debated, that’s what it seems like people are appreciating the most,” Hebda said.