Kansas City Faith Leaders Mostly FAIL Amid Historic Local Violence

Sorry about that post title for Easter Sunday but it's mostly accurate. 

In fact . . . 

Amid historic Kansas City homicide numbers we've mostly seen members of the clergy mug for the cameras, share trite sentiments and offer silly superstitions. 

More importantly . . .

KCMO urban faith leaders have shown a SHOCKING inability to inspire peace amongst their communities.

To be fair . . . Any outcry from these well-meaning pastors, bishops & reverends would mostly consist of preaching to the choir . . . People who regularly attend church aren't out there committing the scary violence we watch on the news. 

Still . . .

The Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally fell on a Holy Day and there are PLENTY of very good Catholics who have taken notice of this fact . . . In his latest post, Kansas City faith scribe Bill Tammeus shares his perspective on the happenstance that has merited religious significance for some:

Religious leaders comfort people at crime scenes, accidents, fires and even inside sanctuaries when people have medical emergencies. Then they offer sermons and prayers to help people ponder the ancient question of why, if God is good and powerful, there’s suffering and evil in the world.

For instance, Fr. Paul Turner, pastor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Kansas City, spoke last month to an Ash Wednesday service just hours after the shootings at Union Station as the Chiefs Super Bowl celebration ended.

“The coincidence of Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day,” he began, “was destined to cause problems. . . It seems unfair.

“This is supposed to be a day of repentance, not a day of cruelty. This got more complicated when Kansas City set aside the same day to celebrate back-to-back Super Bowl victories. It would have made more sense to us if the people in charge had scheduled the parade a day earlier on Mardi Gras. Instead, we got a taste of Easter joy on Ash Wednesday (but) joy has been marred by a horrific shooting in a crowd of people celebrating a magnificent human achievement. It only shows how much we humans, even at our best, still fail before the eyes of God.”

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

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