Catholic Schools Pray Instead of Protest for National School Walkout

Monica Sanchez | March 14, 2018
DONATE
Font Size

As students across the U.S. walked out of their classrooms to protest gun violence on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, two Catholic schools in Erie, Pennsylvania decided to pray instead.

Instead of participating in the National School Walkout, Catholic Preparatory School and Villa Maria Academy held a mass and a prayer service to honor of the 17 people who died in the Valentine’s Day massacre.

School president Father Scott Jabo told “Fox & Friends” that the school administrators felt praying would make a more “powerful impact on the situation” and that it was something “a Catholic school can and should do.”

He described the prayer service, in which 17 students honored each of the 17 Parkland shooting victims and everyone came together to pray for an end to school violence.  

"They'll read their names and a little biography to make it real to all of us who will be in attendance these are real people who had died. And then we will offer them up a prayer and we'll pray for an end to school violence, doing something that we as a Catholic school can and should do, and that is pray and unleash that power of prayer," Jabo said in an interview before the service. 

He said that if any students decided to participate in the walkout, they would face disciplinary action as if they had walked out of a school mass or event.

"But I'm hoping and I’m confident that our students will want to be a part of this, recognizing that this is a very impactful and very powerful way to address the issue of school violence, but also to pray for the victims of this most recent shooting in Parkland, Florida,” said Jabo.

Other private schools across the nation similarly followed suit, including Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego, California.

What do you think of the schools’ decision to pray instead of protest? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

(Cover Photo: Crosswalk.com)

Thank you for supporting MRCTV! As a tax-deductible, charitable organization, we rely on the support of our readers to keep us running! Keep MRCTV going with your gift here!

donate