27 April" "
“The tragic event of the massacre in the German school arouses feelings of horror, sympathy and sorrow. I don’t know the real reasons for this act of madness which might be, on the basis of the little information we have received, an act of revenge”: so said Msgr. Amédéé Grab, bishop of Church and president of the CCEE, questioned about the incident at the recent Symposium on youth in Europe and the faith. Msgr. Grab continued by saying: “However I don’t think it’s a characteristic or typical act and I wouldn’t like to place it in relation with the spread of violence. Similar gestures may occur in any environment and at any time”. The president of the German bishops, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, declared that “an event of this dimension, when it occurs, represents a challenge for the whole of society. So we need to ask ourselves what happened, and especially why it happened. All we can do is pray for the victims, the injured and their families”. For his part, Bishop Franz Josep Bode of Osnabruck, in charge of the national youth apostolate on behalf of the German Episcopal Conference, declared: “I’ve never heard of anything like this, it’s unprecedented and deeply upsetting for the whole community. What happened is a message to us, also in the light of the reflections we are making at this Symposium, that our task is that of concerning ourselves not only with the young in our communities, because, as is clear, there are young people out there who are suffering and have no prospects in life. These youngsters may go so far as to commit gestures like this of unprecedented gravity. I don’t know continued Msgr. Bode what’s behind this gesture; undoubtedly it signals a great despair, which is, after all, typical of our society as a whole”.
