Collaborative Statement Calls for End to Gun Violence

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Collaborative Statement Calls
for End to Gun Violence
May 2022

The undersigned communities represent over 23,000 Catholic women religious, associates, and partners in mission in over 30 states.

Today, we are all residents of Uvalde, Texas, a relatively small community more than 80 miles from San Antonio. On Tuesday, May 24, the world witnessed another horrific, senseless tragedy as a lone gunman shot and killed 21 people, including 19 students, at Robb Elementary School just two days before the end of the school year.

We are once again heartbroken. Whether in Uvalde, Parkland, Newtown, or Littleton, all of us, God’s people, deserve to live in communities free of gun violence. The massacre of children is abhorrent and should never be accepted as “normal.” These acts of violence can no longer be tolerated. They have to stop. It has to end.

Both shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo legally obtained their weapons. The United States, when compared to peer countries, has far more guns per capita, incidences of gun violence, and some of the least restrictive gun laws. According to Education Week, there have already been 27 school shootings in America in 2022 – averaging more than once a week. There have been 251 mass shootings in our country this year, and there have been more mass shootings in the United States than in any other country in the world.

We challenge ourselves, our Church, and all people of goodwill to rededicate themselves to end the scourge of gun violence in this country. To pray for the conversion of society. We plead that all continue to contribute to this movement by taking some of the actions listed below.

Actions we can take:

  • Donate to the Uvalde Victims First Fund, the Buffalo 5-14 Survivors Fund, or Catholic Charities of San Antonio Crisis Relief Services.
  • Send messages to national elected officials to pass gun safety measures through Moms Demand Action, Sandy Hook Promise, or March for Our Lives. If you have a Republican Senator, consider calling to ask for their support for the Background Check Expansion Act. If your senator is Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin, call to ask for their support for a filibuster exception for gun safety legislation.
  • Pray in solidarity with protests at the NRA convention on Friday, May 27th.
  • Join or pray in solidarity with national and local March for Our Lives marches on June 11.

Read the entire Statement

Remembering Sister Margaret Ann Zimmerman, OSF

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On the morning of April 28, 2022, surrounded by our sisters and members of her family, Sister Margaret Ann Zimmerman peacefully passed from this life into eternal life. Confident in the promises made to her by the Risen Lord, she brought to completion the legacy of love and faithfulness that characterized her 101 years. Holding fast to the words of her favorite Psalm 90: “Teach us how short our life is, so that we may become wise,” she departed from us a truly wise and beloved sister.

On March 14, 1921, in Hammond, Indiana, Mary Margaret, was born to her parents, Margaret Frye and Albert J. Zimmerman. One of five children, she treasured her sister, Jane, and her three brothers, Albert, Thomas and James. Holding in her heart, a unique love for each one, she shared a special bond with her brother Albert, a diocesan priest of the Diocese of Gary and Thomas, a Holy Cross priest and missionary in Bangladesh for 40
years.

As a child, Mary Margaret attended St. Joseph Grade School and as an adolescent she attended Catholic Central High School, now known as Bishop Noll Institute. Making her way to register at the College of St. Francis, accompanied by her mother, one of the first Joliet Franciscans she met was Sister Eulogia, who had been a high school classmate of her mother. Sadly, for Mary Margaret, Mrs. Zimmerman, died within the year of cancer. Despite the loss, Mary Margaret successfully completed her bachelor of arts degree with a major in biology and a minor in music. Inspired by the “simplicity, kindness and understanding” of the college sisters who were her teachers and mentors, came to recognize her own calling to the Franciscan way of life and the vocation that she would embrace day by day, ever more deeply, all the days of her life.

Read More About Sister M. Margaret Ann’s Life

If you would like to make a donation in honor of Sister Margaret Ann or another Joliet Franciscan Sister, please click here:  Remembering our Deceased Sisters.