"The shooter put a target on God himself," Father Chris Alar told Newsmax on Thursday, after a transgender gunman murdered two children and injured 17 others during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
Police identified the attacker as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who opened fire on the church during the school Mass. A video manifesto released by authorities showed Westman had used an image of Jesus Christ for target practice prior to the massacre.
"Well, the reason we're saying that it is [a hate crime] because it was at a Catholic church, at a Catholic Mass," Alar said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "That's why we're making the indication that specific Catholicism as a target.
"But you are absolutely right here at the Marian Fathers, one of the main devotions that we promote is called the Holy Face Devotion. It's a devotion in the church that promotes the face of Christ as a light and inspiration to all of us and mankind. And that was what he actually shot at and damaged before the shootings of the children."
Alar, who serves as provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception in the U.S. and Argentina, said the massacre was troubling for many reasons. "And so, this in itself is troubling because it's, you're right, a target on God himself, leading down to his church and leading now down to the people in this type of action is troubling on many fronts," he added.
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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