April, according to T.S. Eliot, is the cruellest month.

Perhaps the frustrations of being a priest in a time of pandemic can be no better summed up than in the anguish that followed the slaughter of 22 people in Nova Scotia.

OTTAWA -- Canada’s bishops are rallying to comfort the people of Nova Scotia as they try to “heal the rupture within the hearts of a community” after 22 people were murdered in the largest mass killing in modern Canadian history on April 18-19.

The Christian response to one man’s murderous rampage that killed 22 people in Nova Scotia April 18-19 isn’t to ignore it or imagine that it’s somehow part of God’s plan, said Halifax-based theologian David Deane.

Health restrictions preventing anything beyond small gatherings should not keep people from grieving a loss, particularly for an event as terrible as the mass slaughter of 22 innocents in Nova Scotia, say grief counsellors.

With at least 22 victim deaths from the largest mass shooting in Canadian history, the people of Nova Scotia are looking for answers, for hope and for healing. 

Over the Labour Day weekend, there sure were a lot of U.S. politicians conveying their “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families of the latest mass shooting, but no visible action on doing anything about the American gun epidemic.

WASHINGTON -- Catholic leaders across the United States reacted with sorrow and "heavy hearts" to a mass shooting in west Texas Aug. 31 that authorities said claimed seven lives and wounded 25 others.

WASHINGTON -- In this American age of violence, where 165 shootings happened this year alone, where politicians scream at each other across the aisle about gun laws and Second Amendment rights without even the common ground of mutual respect, religious leaders, scholars and TV personalities alike notice a more insidious problem with American culture.

WASHINGTON -- The bishop of El Paso, Texas, met with the families of those who were killed and wounded during the Aug. 3 shooting at a Walmart in the city where he serves, and in a statement following the meeting said his heart "was breaking," after seeing up-close the human aftermath of the crime.

WASHINGTON -- In response to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 3 and 4, several U.S. bishops expressed their support and prayers for victims while also expressing outrage that these tragedies continue to occur.

WASHINGTON -- Pope Francis joined Catholic Church leaders expressing sorrow after back-to-back mass shootings in the United States left at least 31 dead and dozens injured in Texas and Ohio Aug. 3 and 4.

LITTLETON, Colo. - After two students at Columbine High School went on a shooting rampage April 20, 1999, killing 12 students and one teacher and injuring two dozen more, then-principal Frank DeAngelis, a lifelong Catholic, began to question his faith, wondering "how could God possibly let this happen?"

The mirage that mass shootings — such as the massacre of 50 Muslims at prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand — are isolated incidents long ago vaporized. While mass killings are performed by deranged individuals whose behaviour falls well outside social norms, they are societal phenomena with societal roots.

BALTIMORE – While Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore offered prayers and support for the families and loved ones of five people murdered June 28 at the offices of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, a former longtime sports editor for the newspaper mourned his friends as exceptional journalists who also were good human beings.