Archdiocesan priest speaks at FedEx shooting memorial service

Father Rick Ginther, director of the archdiocesan Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs, speaks at a May 1 memorial service at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the victims of the April 15 mass shooting at a Federal Express facility near the Indianapolis International Airport. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

Father Rick Ginther, director of the archdiocesan Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs, spoke and offered a prayer at a May 1 memorial service at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the victims of the April 15 mass shooting at the FedEx Ground Plainfield Operations Center in Indianapolis.

The service was sponsored and organized by the Sikh community in Indianapolis. Four of the eight people who were killed in the shooting were Sikh.

Civic leaders, including Gov. Eric Holcomb and Mayor Joseph Hogsett of Indianapolis, and local leaders of a variety of faith traditions spoke at the service.

Father Ginther, who also serves as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis, offered prayers for those who died in the shooting—including FedEx employee John “Steve” Weisert, a member of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis—those who were injured, and for Brandon Hole, the shooter who took his own life during the incident.

“When will this endless gun violence stop?” Father Ginther asked. “When will people of good will in our society from every walk of life set aside their political differences and come together in defense of the human lives that are being destroyed so unnecessarily by these irrational killing sprees?

“When? When we as a people act for the common good.”

He then echoed comments of Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson at the time of the shooting that expressed the longtime support of the bishops in the U.S. for gun control legislation and positive changes in society’s approach to mental illness.

“Underpinning our determination is the recognition that we are all made in the image and likeness of God,” Father Ginther said. “Holding this bedrock belief in our hearts and minds, we will continue to do what we can to end this senseless violence and to live together in peace.

“Please God, may it be so.” †