We need to change

Archbishop Chaput's statement at April 22 prayer service at Civic Center Park

The news of the terrible experience of yesterday was communicated to me when I was in Wichita, Kansas, for a Church gathering. The reality of what happened here didn't hit home until this morning when I visited a large number of students from Columbine High School and then had the privilege of spending some time with the families of two students who were killed.

They taught me something.

The students who gathered to encourage each other taught me again the importance of our sharing this experience together and encouraging one another. They spoke individually, one by one, and encouraged their fellow students to hope for the future.

When I met with the families of the students who had been killed, they taught me to trust, to trust God. Because in the midst of their great suffering, suffering that is beyond my imagination, they had a certain confidence that God would care for them and care for the children they had lost.

Violence is pervasive in our society — in our homes, in our schools, on our streets, in our cars as we drive home from work, in the media, in music, in video games. It's in some ways a very unconsious part of our lives, but a very real part of our lives.

The causes of this violence are hostility, hatred, racism, despair, indifference and a growing coarsening of our views of the value of human life.

We need to change.

We sometimes talk easily about our society needing to change. But societies change when our families are changed. And our families are changed when we as individuals have an experience of conversion to non-violence and to love within our own hearts.

It is not enough for us to speak about society, or our communities. We need to speak about ourselves.

I ask you to join me in praying today and throughout this week in a very special way for the families that have been affected by this violence in such a personal way. But I also ask you to pray that each of us, including myself, will experience a deep conversion in our hearts towards love and non-violence in all our relationships with others.