Church Shootings In Ohio, Texas Stir Concerns

By Whitney Jones
Religion News Service

(RNS) Three outbursts of violence in or near churches, including one during worship services, are raising safety concerns for church leaders.

Eddie Contreras, youth pastor at Walnut Park Casa De Mi Gloria Church in Garland, Texas, was speaking to a group of students Friday evening (Sept. 24) when Jose Pablo, a student struggling with family problems, walked into the service.

Contreras continued preaching despite the interruption, and then Pablo pulled out a gun and shot the youth pastor, according to NBC News. Contreras is expected to recover.

Meanwhile, 75-year-old Thomas Repchic of Youngstown, Ohio, was shot and killed Saturday as he was driving his wife, Jacqueline, 74, home from St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church, where she works in the offices, The Associated Press reported.

Repchic was killed when six to 12 gunshots were fired at the couple's Cadillac. His wife was wounded but is expected to recover.

Repchic's death was the second shooting death outside St. Dominic's; last January, 80-year-old Angeline Fimognari was shot and killed after Mass in the church parking lot.

Youngstown Bishop George Murry encouraged the community to support each other during the tragedy.

"While we pray for justice for the Repchic family, it is important to remember that we also must work together to prevent crime by building safe and secure communities," he said in a statement.

The church is located in a neighborhood of older homes, some of which are boarded up and abandoned. The Repchics' car was found four blocks away from the church in an area close to empty, closed commercial outlets.

The community has struggled with the loss of local steel factories and has lost more than half its population to job losses. Murry urged members of the diocese to pray for safety and healing in the area.

"I ask the faithful of St. Dominic Parish, all members of the Diocese of Youngstown and indeed all people within the diocese, to pray for the Repchic family and for an end to violence in our community," he said.

Mauricio Elizondo, senior pastor at Walnut Park, also encouraged his congregation to move past the violence. "We will not start living in fear," he told NBC News. "We will not be held captive by the things that happen in society."

Comments

[Donnat]

11:49 PM on 09/30/2010

The old folks in Ohio sound like crime-related shootings. The one in Texas was the typical way young men act out in this state when they have poor impulse control and access to a gun.

[RedRat]

02:52 PM on 09/30/2010

It is not clear from the article whether these shootings were religion motivated. Need more details. Doesn't sound like the shooters were necessarily moved by religious intolerance.

[Rhonda Fessel]

10:54 AM on 10/02/2010

The Rechics are my neighbors. The shooting stems from mistaken car identity, evidently someone who drives a car just like theirs shot up their car, and they seen the Repchic car and shot up their car. Mr. Repchic was killed instantly and the Mrs. had to have leg amputated because the bullet from the AK 47 smashed the bone.

[RedRat]

02:30 PM on 10/02/2010

Thanks for the details. It doesn't sound as if the shooting were religiously motivated but other reasons were in play here. Nonetheless, it is terrible what happened. Hope they catch the perps and expedite their trip to the "next world" (which I hope has fire and brimstone in it).

[jweider]

01:35 AM on 09/30/2010

"I ask the faithful of St. Dominic Parish, all members of the Diocese of Youngstown and indeed all people within the diocese, to pray for the Repchic family and for an end to violence in our community," he said.

What kind of dim bulb are these people praying to if they have to ask him to stop people from shooting at them?

[Gomorrah]

08:57 PM on 09/29/2010

The two moral christian groups are the Quakers and the Amish.

The two most eviI christian groups are the southern Baptist evangelicals and the Pentecostals.

The rest of the christians are Meah! Irrelevant!

[Matthew Breslin]

04:52 PM on 09/29/2010

Wow, those Christians sure are a violent lot.

[ohiodiane]

03:33 PM on 09/29/2010

So far, the respondents have missed the point of this article. The point is NOT that churches have problems. The point is that several innocent people were gunned down in, outside of or near a church. In the case of the Youngstown shootings, the people who were shot were simply leaving Mass at a church that they love. I don't care what the ideology of the church is--no one has a right to take innocent lives. Gangs have infested the neighborhood where St. Dominic's church has sat for years. It is a terrible shame what little respect some people have for the lives of others.

[oldguru]

09:13 PM on 09/29/2010

So, the Bishop says that "we must work together to prevent crime by building safe and secure communities" What irony! Perhaps the Bishop should start preventing crime INSIDE the church.

[ohiodiane]

08:43 AM on 09/30/2010

Once again, we're missing the point here. Did the two people who died outside of or near St. Dominic's Church abuse anyone? Of course not! And I'm sure they didn't approve of the sex abuse scandals that were revealed EIGHT YEARS AGO. But they were faithful to the message of Christ, and they were going to church to pray and give thanks. It doesn't matter if they were coming out of a Catholic church, a Protestant church, a synagogue or a mosque. It also doesn't matter if they were coming out of the grocery store. What matters is that these victims were long-time residents of the neighborhood and parishioners of that church, and their lives were taken from them by people who have no respect for themselves or others.

[The Dear God Letters]

10:47 AM on 09/29/2010

As a Christian, I'm completely ashamed at what the church and Christians have become. We've become a bunch of helpless co-dependents who can't do anything without spewing a Bible verse, asking God for some type of strength, or praying about it. There is so much in-fighting within our churches that it's completely ridiculous. Certain groups aren't as "Christian" as other groups and an entirely new level of smugness has crept into the faithful. I am a 30 year old Christian male and I have not given up on Christianity because if people would actually pick up their Bible and read it (while eliminating the portions that are absolutely ridiculous and make absolutely no sense) they would realize that Jesus gave two commandments when asked for the most important one.

#1 Love God...
#2 Do unto others...

PERIOD! Not: don't have abortions, don't be gay, don't be Muslim, don't get tattoos, don't proclaim to know everything, don't divorce, don't have sex too much, etc etc. The church has become so ridiculous which is precisely the reason I don't attend anymore. In its purest form, Christianity is a personal relationship with God. One-on-one. No priest to intercede and no need for 10 minute diatribe prayers that only serve to impress others. Fundamental Christianity is not Pat Robertson's. Fundamental Christianity is two commandments given by Jesus and a personal relationship with God.

And this, is why my church and brethren get on my nerves so much.

[brooklyncitizen]

01:35 PM on 09/29/2010

And this, is why my church and brethren get on my nerves so much.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I completely understand and agree with your re-definiton of Fundamentalist. But....we are to forgive 70 times 7 and of course this includes the church and brethren that get on your nerves (you may have already done this).Further more if you still get something positive from your church the reason to attend is to act as a source of light and in your way counter the ignorance that you find in your spiritual community.THis is also another way of waging war against sheer ignorance and stupidity. Just a thought.

[triplettam]

04:47 PM on 09/29/2010

Wow. Exactly how I feel. You have another fan. I have faith, but I spend more time arguing with the so-called "Religious Right" than I do with people who have no faith (and I don't actually argue with them about that; I just call them out when it seems that they're mocking other people with faith). They use their faith as a political weapon and a bludgeon to cower people into submission. Got into a heated argument with a woman when I questioned whether all Pauline verse was "God-breathed." She told me I couldn't consider myself a Christian if I didn't believe it was. She may be right about Paul, but she's not God and right about me. There's nothing anywhere that says I have to believe anything other than what you said. Thanks for posting.

[usorthem3]

08:28 AM on 09/29/2010

Maybe if hypocrisy and shoving religion down people's throat should stop then. Churches have become the very "CULTS" they preach against. Burning Korans, preaching politics from the pulpit, having the, "I don't like how you live your life so you need to die" mentality that is being voiced as in the church's mission in Uganda . MEGA churches with a million followers praying to a video screen, sounds like Jim Jones to me. Organized religion is the virus of the human society world wide. Pray or practice the way YOU see fit but don't expect everyone else to do it your way because you liken yourself to the divine.

[brooklyncitizen]

01:42 PM on 09/29/2010

Couple of thing sto keep in mind:
1-Churches have historically taken a political position, especially in the South and during slavery and Jim Crow. Even in the North the QUakers and abolitionists were political.

2-Christianity is BROAD and no two churches are equal, even if they are from the same denomination.

As someone who chose to come back to Christianity (after being "spiritual") the danger with many congregations is that folks have not really earned the right to be Christians. That is to say they have not made an effort to fully understand the weight of that life.

In tandem with this most have not bothered to learn about other faiths and this doesn't help keep ignorance at bay.

I think no matter what you believe or don't believe the problem is always the same: we hold on so tightly that we don't allow for other possibilities or ideas to take root.

[Leslee Long]

08:34 PM on 09/29/2010

I agree, sometimes have a deep seated need to be "right" that everyone else has to be wrong. I am not sure that it crosses the minds of many that perhaps God is not as limited as their own minds are.

Paul struggled greatly to try and bring the common ground and the cycle continues to this day. We see it in most other religions, the need to be right and sectarian disagreements bypassing the original point.