Cardinal Tobin calling for prayers following Pennsylvania shooting

Following an assassination attempt at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pa. on Saturday, July 13, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, issued a statement asking for the faithful to join him in prayer.

After shots were fired at around 6 p.m., Republican presidential nominee Trump was rushed offstage by Secret Service agents as he was in the middle of delivering his rally speech. Agents quickly surrounded Trump and escorted him into his motorcade after a series of gunshots rang out hitting Trump in the ear, killing one person and critically injuring two others. The gunman is also dead.

“I invite the faithful of the Archdiocese of Newark and all people of good will to join me in praying for the recovery of former President Donald Trump and all victims of the shooting in Butler County, Pennsylvania,” Cardinal Tobin wrote in a statement issued Sunday, July 14. “May the family of the deceased and wounded find consolation and hope, and may this outrage lead us, as Americans, to denounce all forms of political and gun violence and the rhetoric that incites it. Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and Patroness of the United States of America, pray for us.”

Law enforcement officials said the incident was being investigated as an assassination attempt. They identified the shooter as a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pa. The motive is still under investigation.

President Joe Biden condemned the political violence after the shooting.

“A former president was shot and an American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing,” Biden said. “We can not, we must not, go down this road in America.”

Biden said that despite differences of opinion in politics, a democracy should resolve its differences at the ballot box, not with bullets.

“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions,” Biden said. “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized. You know, the political correctness country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. We all have the responsibility to do that.”

Catholic News Service reported that on July 14, the Vatican press office released a statement expressing “concern about last night’s episode of violence, which wounds people and democracy, causing suffering and death,” and adding the Holy See is “united in the prayer of the U.S. bishops for America, for the victims, and for peace in the country, so that the motives of the violent may never prevail.”

OSV contributed to this report.