The mass shooting in Orlando on Saturday night could happen again and it could happen anywhere, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.
“Fingers and blame are unfoundedly often hastily pointed at the entire honest Islamic community,” he said.
"Any culture which gives notoriety to violence only encourages the deranged or the simply evil to attempt to repeat such actions. As followers of Jesus Christ, Christians should work more and more to purify ourselves from all prejudice, to be in the forefront in dialogue and reconciliation and have the resolution to courageously confront those who anywhere foster violence," he said in a statement on Monday morning.
“This time, the victims were members of the LGBT community; in other cases the victims were from the media or simply innocent bystanders,” he said. “People all over the world are shocked. How do we explain that our modern society can somehow be held to ransom in successive gun attacks by individuals or small groups filled with hatred?”
Prayers
Books of condolence are open at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin for those who wish to express their grief and outrage, he said while he has requested that, in the Prayers of the Faithful at all Masses in the Archdiocese of Dublin on the coming weekend, "that those who died or who remain injured and all those who mourn and grieve be remembered".
A candle will be lit in one of the side chapels of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Tuesday in memory of those who died and the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson has requested prayers for the 49 victims and all affected by the shooting.
"Outrage and incredulity combine as we in Ireland, like the rest of the world, try to take in the enormity and the evil of the horrific events in Orlando, Florida, over the weekend. These events, targeting a specific section of the community, have, once again, brought terror and hatred to the forefront in a place where people have been among friends and living their lives," he said.
“We echo the statements which say that this had nothing to do with religion,” he said, and that “right across the faiths of the world we long and pray for a time when there will be an end to such attacks and an end to the needless and senseless loss of human life”.
