Another loss: Parade shooting hits close to home
February 14, 2024, was intended to be a day of celebration. Catholics around the world celebrated Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, entering the season of reflection, repentance, and recommitment. Valentine’s Day was a celebration of love for couples and families. Kansas City, Missouri, held a parade that day, a community celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory three days prior.
The tragic ending of that parade was worldwide news. An argument broke out, and guns were fired. Twenty-two people were injured, and Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother of two and former parishioner at Sacred Heart Guadalupe parish, was killed.
The loss hit close to home for Father James Betzen, C.PP.S., and Father Aloysius Ebach, C.PP.S., both of whom knew Lisa and her family well from their time as pastors at Sacred Heart. Her family lived just down the street from the parish, and Fr. Jim and Fr. Al watched Lisa grow up, get married, and have children of her own. They are mourning the loss of Lisa, while also feeling gratitude that more people weren’t killed in the spray of bullets.
It’s not the first time they’ve had to accept the loss of members of their community to gun violence. This shooting made headlines. Many in the area do not.
“In my years as pastor from 1993 to 2004, I had four victims of gun violence,” Fr. Jim says. “I performed three funerals because one was a double homicide. It was tragic, and I consoled the families while grieving myself.”
Fr. Al also felt the devastation of ministering in an area rife with violence. “I presided over the funeral of a child. He was four years old. They called me to the hospital, and I was thinking, nobody is going to do anything about this.”
Within the spirituality of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and our founder, St. Gaspar del Bufalo, is a path to end the violence.
“Gasper said we’ve got to work for peace,” says Fr. Al. “We can’t possibly remove all the guns in our society, but we can work for peace. Through the charity that he preached and the blood of Christ that we have in our community and so much blood that is being shed, there will be the opportunity of peace, both in our society and in our Church.”
The message is there, but getting it into the world is a challenge. Much of the gun violence is perpetuated by teens, and making inroads with children and teens is key.
“There’s always a temptation to join these gangs that thrive on violence,” says Fr. Jim. “It’s a loyalty to their gang that drives teens and kids to a violent lifestyle. If they don’t have a strong family life, then their gang is their family.”
Fr. Al ministers at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church and Catholic School in St. Joseph, Missouri. One thing he strives for with the children in the community is to build them up early. “How do we invite our children to have self-esteem and be recognized as important people and invite families to participate?” he says. Finding ways to do so establishes a foundation that deters gang participation.
Both priests encourage adults to get involved. “Any adult can reach out to talk to teens and children and make a strong relationship,” Fr. Jim says. “We see youth with goals, especially educational goals, who have something to work for. They have a path, and they know that if they get in a gang, they won’t go to college and they won’t have a career.”
Reconciliation, a pillar of the Precious Blood spirituality, can bring people together who might otherwise solve a dispute with gunfire.
“Spiritually, people want to be peaceable,” Fr. Al says. “I have no doubts about that. We need to talk about the peace that St. Gaspar invited us to participate in.”