„We pray for justice. We pray for peace. We pray for the graces to work for the things we pray for” – the Redemptorist ministering at St. Alphonsus Church in Minnesota, together with their parishioners joined all who express the grief after the tragic death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, African-American man, who was shot and killed by the police officer on April 11 in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, USA.
“We join our community in sharing our intense grief at the killing of Daunte Wright in our Brooklyn Center neighbourhood. Justice is not done through such violence – accidental or otherwise – enacted on the innocent. Neither is justice done through looting and destruction of property. We await the full @MNBCA investigation with wakeful care,” – they wrote on the parish website and Facebook profile.
The National Catholic Reporter quotes Fr. Marcel Okwara C.Ss.R., parochial vicar of St. Alphonsus Church, who immigrated from Nigeria in 2007. He said that he felt upset and touched with Wright’s death. He mentioned also about two workshops on racism that the parish held some months ago, after Floyd’s death that occurred last year in Minneapolis. Fr. Okwara said that people of all races need to see that what hurts one group ultimately hurts everyone. Human people are interdependent, like organs in a body, he said.
Fr. John Schmidt, C.Ss.R., pastor at St. Alphonsus, told Nacional Catholic Reporter that the parish and the community are grieving Wright’s death, particularly those who live near where Wright was killed, which is less than 2 miles from the church. He said that he asked the parishioners to pray for peace, and to help understand one another, and to support each other, and to „look for ways to eliminate racism in our own personal lives, then our parish, and then hopefully, in the wider community.”
