Bishop Lucey: Gun Rights Can’t Outweigh Lives of Children After School Shooting

Bishop George Lucey Responds to School Shooting: “The Rights of Gun Ownership Cannot Outweigh the Lives of Our Children”

August 28, 2025 — Feast of St. Augustine
In the wake of another tragic school shooting in the United States, Bishop George R. Lucey, Presiding Bishop of the American National Catholic Church, issued a strong pastoral statement condemning the nation’s ongoing gun violence crisis.
“Two young lives have been cut short and many others injured, even as they prayed at Mass,” Bishop Lucey said. “These children are, in the truest sense, martyrs—reminders of the urgent moral and spiritual crisis we face in our country.”
Citing the words of the prophet Jeremiah in Matthew’s Gospel—“Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more”—Bishop Lucey described the tragedy as yet another sign of America’s failure to protect its most vulnerable.
“As Christians, our baptismal vows call us to love God and neighbor. To defend systems that allow children to be slaughtered is a betrayal of those vows. The rights of gun ownership can never outweigh the right of our children to live,” he said.
The bishop also criticized distortions of the Gospel by groups aligning Christianity with supremacy and exclusion. “The American National Catholic Church stands firmly against the misuse of Christ’s message by voices of fear. We are called to be a visible sign of God’s love—working to end division, embrace the marginalized, and act with justice and compassion for all.”
On the Feast of St. Augustine, Bishop Lucey drew from the saint’s writings: “If we receive the Eucharist worthily, we become what we receive.” He urged Catholics to live as Christ’s presence in the world—“agents of justice, builders of peace, and bearers of love.”
About the ANCC: The American National Catholic Church (ANCC) is an independent Catholic community rooted in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, welcoming all people to the sacraments regardless of marital status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.