By Joe Ruff / The Catholic Spirit, OSV News
MINNEAPOLIS (OSV News) — Blessing her forehead and both hands with holy water from Lourdes, France, as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed in Minneapolis, Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Izen of St. Paul and Minneapolis prayed for 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, left in critical condition with head injuries when bullets tore through Annunciation’s church in Minneapolis one week before.
“Just ask people to pray. We’re going to win this,” Forchas’ father told Bishop Izen Sept. 2 at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis.
Seventeen other students at Annunciation’s elementary school were wounded when a person wielding three guns began shooting through stained-glass windows into the church, which is next door to the school. Forchas’ brother was in the church, too, but he was not injured in the Aug. 27 shooting.
Of the other injured students, only Lydia Kaiser remained in the hospital Sept. 2, and she was steadily improving, Bishop Izen said. Three adults were wounded in the shooting. The suspected shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene, police said.
Separate GoFundMe pages for the girls sought financial assistance for their family’s medical bills, trauma counseling, lost income and other expenses. Both girls have undergone surgeries and the need for medical care will continue, according to posts on the website describing their situations. Loved ones of many of the victims set up GoFundMe sites.
Lydia Kaiser was injured while protecting her little “buddy” during the Mass, which was the first all-school Mass of the school year, the Kaiser family’s post said.
Her father, Harry Kaiser, the school’s gym teacher, was in the church during the shooting. He “helped secure the room, to keep children safe, and stuck with them until they were reunited with their families, even while his daughter was entering the emergency room,” the post said. “Lydia and Harry are two heroes in our midst,” the post said.
Bishop Izen said Forchas’ mother and her brother were in the hospital room when he visited the family. The GoFundMe post said that while Forchas’ brother was not physically injured, “the trauma of witnessing such a terrifying event — and knowing his sister was critically injured — is something no child should ever experience.”
In addition, Forchas’ mother is the head of the pediatric intensive care unit at Hennepin Healthcare, Bishop Izen said. She arrived at work Aug. 27 to help the injured before knowing it was her children’s school that was attacked and that her daughter was critically injured, the GoFundMe post said.
The Forchas family belongs to St. Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis, which included a link on its website to the GoFundMe post and noted that Sophia Forchas is a member of the parish’s Greek dancing troupe.
The parish stated on its website that its Minneapolis Taste of Greece Festival Sept. 5-7 would collect donations to help the victims of the shooting at Annunciation and their families. Multiple parishioners of St. Mary were at the all-school Mass, the post said.
“For decades, the Forchas family has been the heart and muscle behind the Taste of Greece,” the post said. “We are aching without them here this weekend. This year’s festival honors the love, faith and service that the Forchas family has poured into our parish and this event, year after year.”
Bishop Izen said that in addition to the two girls, he has visited with other Annunciation families and students, both at the school and at a counseling site. Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Auxiliary Bishop Kevin T. Kenney have done the same, day in and day out since the shooting. They also held three public prayer services in the days after the shooting and spoke with the media, all the while urging the faithful to find their strength in Christ.
Bishop Kenney graduated from Annunciation Catholic School and grew up as part of the parish. He was at St. Olaf in Minneapolis, where he is pastor as well as bishop, and he immediately went to Hennepin Healthcare to be present for families as they gathered.
“It was very emotional, and I knew the Church needed to be present and represented,” Bishop Kenney said in an email. “I sat with parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents as they awaited news of their children and then were directed to various waiting rooms.
“I was able to sit with the family of Sophia (Forchas) for a while” and he visited with Lydia Kaiser, the bishop said, while noting priests and others also helped people through the days after the shooting.
The archbishop said his spirits have been lifted by the heroism and faith families and students have described during his visits.
“I was so edified at (Hennepin Healthcare) earlier today,” Archbishop Hebda said during an Aug. 30 news conference with Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation. A young girl said she shared an ambulance with another student, the archbishop said.
“She said, ‘We held each other’s hands, and we prayed. We prayed the Our Father, we prayed the Hail Mary, and that’s what helped us through.'”
Joe Ruff is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. This story was originally published by The Catholic Spirit and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.
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