Virginia Tech Massacre - What's wrong?

Just a quick reflection on what’s going on at Virginia Tech. Couldn’t sleep last night so was listening to the radio (internet radio) about 2 am and heard the “convocation” at Virginia Tech. The President, the governor of Virginia, all the school authorities, etc. spoke. Every one of them quoted Scripture. Every one of them mentioned “prayer”. One school official even read a whole part of Ecclesiastes (A time for sowing, a time for reaping, etc.)

What happened to the so-called separation of Church and State? What happened to prayer not being allowed in schools and the display of religion, specifically the Christian religion, not being allowed in public places? Rush Limbaugh had it right when he commented:

though it’s good that we should come together and pray when things like this happen that maybe we should come together and pray BEFORE these things happen so that maybe they WON’T happen.

As individuals there’s not much we can do to change the stupid, God-forsaking policies or our public institutions. But no one can keep us from praying in our homes. Let us build up the Church of the Home. Let us make it a sanctuary of prayer, a holy place. We will sanctify the world from the inside out.

On another note though, I would encourage you not to fall for the media’s characterization of this event as a “tragedy”. It’s NOT a “tragedy”, it’s an “atrocity”. (They did the same thing with 9-11.)

A “tragedy” is a life lost in a car accident, an earthquake, tornado, or hurricane. Calling this a “tragedy” skews the responsibility for the act. Calling this an “atrocity”, which it is, nails the responsibility to the perpetrator and his singular act of will.

It is a ‘tragedy” for those who have lost a loved one, but the event as a whole is an “atrocity”. This may not seem all that important, but the word “atrocity” answers the great “why” that everyone else is asking. While the rest of the world cries to heaven for an answer, we need look no further than one who “roams the earth seeking the ruin of souls”. And as a nation we should not be shocked. With 43 million unborn babies dead since 1973, we long ago built a throne for Satan to rule.

On Sunday April 24th 1994, Pope John Paul II recommended this prayer be used by all Catholics as a prayer for the Church when he said:

"May prayer strengthen us for the spiritual battle we are told about in the Letter to the Ephesians: 'Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power' (Ephesians 6:10). The Book of Revelation refers to this same battle, recalling before our eyes the image of St. Michael the Archangel (Revelation 12:7). Pope Leo XIII certainly had a very vivid recollection of this scene when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to St. Michael throughout the Church. Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world."'

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.