The first comment that I heard after the attack on Catholic schoolchildren in Minneapolis this week was from the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, who said: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers just now. These kids were literally praying.”

Initially, it didn’t strike me as particularly problematic.

I am also a bit chagrined after any tragedy when I hear the rote term “thoughts and prayers” as a kind ofreflexive reaction to pain.

But then, later in the evening I was watching CNN and a group of “experts” were discussing the incident, and to a person they rejected the idea that this was an anti-Catholic attack.

One person suggested that given the mangled thought processes of the killer, you couldn’t really figure out what his problem, or his target was.

Another suggested that the s

See Full Page