Salve Regina builds memorial for victims of gun violence, encourages action

Salve Regina held a special mass on Wednesday, June 1, that honored the lives lost to gun violence at Robb Elementary School in Texas, Tops Friendly Market in New York, the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in California and the Natalie Medical Building in Oklahoma.

As a follow up to this mass, the Mercy Center for Spiritual Life and the Center for Community Engagement and Service will be building visible memorials to those who have been killed in the multiple shootings over the past few weeks.

One large cross encircled by 36 smaller crosses will be on the grounds of Our Lady of Mercy Chapel. The symbolism of these crosses indicates that the suffering of others in society is the suffering of Christ. The Mercy Center for Spiritual Life invites all to come and offer a prayer, complete a moment of silence and reflect about the lives lost.

The Center for Community Engagement and Service will also have memorial signs of all those killed in these shootings within the chapel. The center will also display lanterns with the names of those who have been killed in the recent shootings in the shape of a heart on the lawn outside of McKillop Library and Gerety Hall.

The crosses and lanterns will be displayed over Reunion Weekend on Friday, June 3, through Sunday, June 5.

Future memorials and awareness gardens are being designed and planned to be a constant reminder of our responsibilities to each other, to the common good and to the mercy mission. Let this be a moment of action for the Salve Regina community, bidding a movement forward toward nonviolence and action to end gun violence in America.

Advocacy Resources

Current Gun Safety and Domestic Terrorism Prevention Bills:

• H.R.5273 – Gun Safety Board and Research Act
• H.R.1446 – Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021
• H.R.350 – Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022
• H.R.1808 – Assault Weapons Ban of 2021
• S.1108 – Keep Americans Safe Act

To contact a representative about these bills, please go here.

To contact a senator about these bills, please go here.

Prayer from the Sisters of Mercy

• Let the Shooting End

Resources on Nonviolence

• Sandy Hook Promise
• Nonviolence Institute
• Mercy and Peacebuilding Approach to Gun Violence
• How Catholic Church Could Help Lead Gun Control Movement

A Prayer from Salve Regina

God of Mercy,
No.
We can’t bear it.

Give us the strength,
Give us the courage,
Give us the fortitude.

We must act.
Children dead.
Shoppers dead.
Teachers dead.
Churchgoers dead.

Our hearts ache.
Our children are bewildered.
Our country wrenches.

Move us to act.
Move us from No
To Yes.

Move our hearts.
Move our power.
Move our privilege.
Move our humanity.

Embrace all who grieve.
Embrace all who mourn.
Embrace all who turn away.

God of mercy,
Have mercy on us.
Move us to act.

Yes.

Amen.

Prayer offered by Dr. Theresa Ladrigan-Whelpley, vice president for mission integration