Children lost at prayer must invite serious action

This week, in parochial and Christian schools across Chicago and the suburbs, schoolchildren filed into pews with their classmates to observe church services ahead of the school day.

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Afterward, they returned to class as usual. Two of their peers up north did not. Two children — 8 and 10 years old — died Wednesday celebrating Mass.

They were killed in Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis when a gunman shot through the windows of the church, which was filled with parents, teachers and students celebrating Annunciation Catholic School's return to the classroom. Seventeen others were injured, according to the Tribune News Service.

As we write, we don’t yet know their names. What we do know is we wish they'd been able to walk right back to school after church ended. We wish this was just another normal day for their families. Police are calling this a deliberate act of violence. We can't help but remember something the folks from the American Jewish Committee said when they visited us earlier this year. “If they come for us on Saturday, they'll come for you on Sunday.”