Chicago police officers stand outside the Mercy Hospital

CHURCH

US bishops call for measures to curb gun violence

American bishops are calling for “reasonable gun measures” to deal with gun violence, in response to the most recent shootings in the US, where three people lost their lives as a gunman opened fire at Mercy Hospital, Chicago.

By Joachim Teigen

According to the Chicago Tribune, gunman Juan Lopez entered Mercy Hospital in Chicago on the afternoon of Monday, 19 October, to confront doctor Tamara O’Neal over a broken engagement, before shooting her dead.

Police Officer Samuel Jiminez was also killed in the line of duty, along with Dayna Less, a first-year pharmacy resident who was randomly shot as she got out of the lift. The gunman was eventually found dead, having been wounded by a police bullet.

A “pervasive plague of gun violence”

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, immediately issued a statement expressing the grief of the bishops, and assured the victims and their loved ones of their prayers as they “entrust them to the compassion of Our Lady of Guadalupe”.

Asking how such a person could obtain a firearm, the Cardinal went on to say that “we bishops will continue to ask that public policies be supported to enact reasonable gun measures to help curb this pervasive plague of gun violence”.

Read the full statement: http://usccb.org/news/2018/18-189.cfm

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