WWALDE, Texas – A day after an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 elementary school students and teachers, state political leaders expressed outrage over the shooting, but quickly removed the possibility of new gun laws to stop further violence. Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Sieler listened.
When the media briefing at the local high school ended, he spontaneously and passionately called on some of the many reporters who stormed Uwalde: The nation needs to review its gun laws, restricting access to weapons designed to increase carnage and suffering, he said. He must also abandon what he described as a disturbing cultural embrace of the violence posed by these weapons.
“We have to!” said Archbishop Garcia-Seeler, who heads the Archdiocese of San Antonio. “We need to promote life, people’s lives.”
Following the attack, the archbishop, whose vast domain of some 796,000 Catholics includes Uwalde, emerged as one of the most prominent and vocal advocates of gun control in South Texas.
He has delivered sermons, spoken at public gatherings, appeared on national television and given interviews to local and international journalists. He argues that the requirement for changes in gun laws is no different than the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion or the death penalty, joining a collection of bishops urging the church to take a stronger position in the firearms debate.
But unlike some others, he does so in a place where guns are deeply rooted in culture and most community leaders boast of their loyalty to the Second Amendment.
“We have made weapons an idol in this country,” said Archbishop Garcia-Siller in a recent MSNBC interview. “I believe with all my heart that gun control must be carried out in a more radical way.
For the most part, the archbishop has been engrossed in trying to feed a grieving community by making the one-hour trip to Uwalde from San Antonio over and over again in recent weeks – leading liturgies and presiding over funerals. He hugged teenagers who had lost their parents. He was also asked to advise the mother, whose son shot his grandmother and then raided Rob Elementary School on May 24.
Still, speaking also felt part of his mission, even if he knew he didn’t expect a fully receptive audience within his archdiocese, which is spread over nearly two dozen counties around San Antonio.
Asked in an interview with The New York Times how to reconcile his appeal to the community with the long-standing embrace of guns, his response was sharp. “You can’t combine guns with life,” he said.
Arms control activists said he was speaking at a crucial moment, as he maintained some optimism that the anger and grief of the shooting could lead people to reconsider their long-held views on gun rights.
“This gives Christians – Catholics in particular – a moment of pause when they notice the dissonance,” said Johnny Zokovic, executive director of Pax Christi USA, a non-violent Catholic organization, noting that the archbishop’s comments “stand out.” in contrast to the political leadership in Texas. “
In his sermons, Archbishop Garcia-Siler, 65, may be quiet. During a conversation, his voice is sometimes barely audible over a murmur. But the archbishop’s position is unshakable. In a way, it wasn’t surprising either.
For more than a decade as archbishop of San Antonio, Mr. Garcia-Siler, a native of San Luis Potosí in central Mexico, has built a reputation for speaking out on social issues, especially in support of illegal immigrants. He also annoyed conservatives in 2019 after a gunman targeting Latinos opened fire at Walmart in El Paso, calling on President Donald J. on Twitter. Trump “Stop racism by starting with yourself.” (He later deleted the post and apologized for criticizing a person instead of focusing on the bigger issue.)
“He is known for taking a more progressive, pro-immigrant type of position,” said Jacob Friesenhan, who leads the program of religious studies at the University of Our Lady of the Lake, a Catholic school in San Antonio.
A contingent of conservative Catholics say the church’s teachings, including self-defense and the common good, justify the possession and carrying of weapons. But scholars say Archbishop Garcia-Seeler’s position is probably more in line with Catholic teachings and a strong position among Catholic leaders that grew out of their irritation at the ongoing violence.
“I don’t think he will be tortured at all,” said Father Dorian Llewellyn, a Jesuit priest and president of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. “It’s not like making some radical new statement.”
Other Catholic leaders spoke out against the guns in the days after the Uwalde massacre. Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, said on Twitter: “Don’t tell me the problem is not guns, it’s people. Cardinal Blaise J. Kupich, who as archbishop of Chicago has become one of the Catholic Church’s staunchest critics of gun violence and the forces behind it, acknowledged that efforts to change may seem futile in the face of repeated bloodshed.
“The scale of the crisis and its absolute horror,” Cardinal Kupic said in a statement, “make it too easy to raise one’s hands and declare that ‘nothing can be done.’ But this is the advice of despair, and we are a people of hope. ”
In a letter to Congress, in response to lawmakers’ efforts to adopt some gun control measures, several bishops called on elected officials to take “concrete action to achieve wider social renewal.”
“Among the many steps to tackle this endemic violence, they write, is the adoption of reasonable arms control measures.
The reaction of Archbishop Garcia-Siler’s position on guns among Catholics in South Texas is colored not only by longstanding political beliefs and their horror of the Uwalde shooting, but also by their views on how and when it is appropriate for church leaders to enter such a heated and a seemingly insoluble debate.
“It’s a matter of politics,” Carlos Zimmerle, 54, said after a recent liturgy at a Catholic parish on the West Side in San Antonio. “Not for religion.”
To others, he simply gave voice to painful emotions fueled by horrific violence.
“The archbishop is like all of us,” said Daniel Casanova, a 66-year-old gun owner who worships in a parish in Helotes, a town of just over 9,000 people northwest of San Antonio. “We are human beings and I think he sees the pain we all see.”
Scholars and other Catholics say the influence of church leaders has waned in recent years, undermined by institutional failures in responding to sexual violence and shifting society away from traditional religious worship. Taking such a firm stand with regard to weapons, Archbishop Garcia-Sieler tested the power he had among his flock.
But beyond that, the archbishop’s response shows the vast spectrum of opinions that now coexist within the Catholic Church.
Nancy Kaluza, who worships at Helotes, said she believes the archbishop has the right to express his opinion and has largely agreed with him.
“I have never been able to figure out any good reason for ordinary people to have assault weapons,” said Kaluza, 72. “I am not against hunting, I am not against having weapons for protection, but there is simply no reason for people other than the military and SWAT teams and so on to have assault weapons.
Raymond Remires, 59, said he understood why the archbishop had raised the issue. But Mr. Remirez, who does not own a gun, was seriously considering buying one.
He shook up a list of shootings, including last month at a grocery store in Buffalo and another in 2017 at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, a community outside of San Antonio. “This could happen here,” Mr Remirez said. “I’d rather be judged by 12 than be carried by six.”
But the archbishop said his mandate was to offer moral clarity to inspire compassion and change.
Between vigils and meetings with the families of the victims in Uwalde, he visited Catholic schools scattered throughout South Texas for celebrations at the end of the year. He also delivered a special sermon for children at a recent liturgy at Sacred Heart, a Catholic parish in Uwalde.
In interviews, he repeatedly referred to what he had heard from primary school children who orient themselves in such a confusing moment. One student, he said, asked if they should pray for the shooter and his family. Another said he believed God would help them. “We’ll be fine,” the archbishop recalled of the child.
“Oh, my God,” said Archbishop Garcia-Siller, surprised when he remembered the interaction. He shared a line from the Gospel of Matthew that he has often said lately: “Let the children come to me.”
Addressing such a controversial issue as gun laws, he said, can also draw wisdom from children whose lives have been lost.
“Can we let the little ones come to us?” Can we pay attention to them? “Said the archbishop.” These innocent people who died become a source of light for us – to live better and to do better.
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