Dear Friends of The Franciscan Way,
The violence in our country confronts us with a harsh and scary reality: lives taken in violent ways destroy families, communities, faith gatherings, and our shared sense of humanity.
For Franciscans, these moments are not only horrific and tragic—they are spiritually challenging. They call us to look deeper, to respond differently, and to ask what faithfulness looks like when the world feels broken.
At the heart of this tragedy are not headlines or arguments, but human beings; lives, each carrying history, relationships, struggles, and dignity. Franciscan spirituality insists that we begin here.
Fr. David Convertino, OFM
Executive Director of Development
Before opinions, before explanations, before blame—we begin with reverence for life. Every person is our brother or sister, created in the image of God, a member of our shared family and worthy of protection and compassion. We share this planet with members of the same family, people who have parents, siblings, faces and stories not entirely dissimilar to ours.
St. Francis teaches us that violence is not merely an external problem; it is also a symptom of deeper interior wounds—fear, alienation, despair, and a failure to see the other as sister and brother. When lives are taken, we must ask not only what happened, but what has gone wrong in the human heart and in the structures we have built together.
The Franciscan tradition does not allow us to look away. Francis did not flee from suffering; he moved toward it. He touched what others feared. He stood with the poor, the marginalized, and the wounded—those who were often caught in cycles of violence and neglect. To be Franciscan in this moment means refusing the comfort of geographical distance or fear-filled indifference.
At the same time, our response must be different from the patterns that perpetuate harm. Franciscan witness rejects vengeance, dehumanization, and easy answers. We do not respond to death with more death, nor to anger with contempt. Instead, we grieve deeply, speak honestly, and work patiently for peace rooted in justice.
These tragedies call us to conversion—personal and communal. Conversion asks us to examine how fear shapes our judgments, how silence brings harm, and how systems fail to protect life. It asks us to listen to those who live closest to violence and to commit ourselves to concrete actions that foster safety, dignity, and reconciliation.
Prayer, for Franciscans, is not an escape from responsibility or an attempt to provide an easy answer. It is where our hearts are softened, our courage renewed and our relationship with God and others is strengthened. We pray to never forget these lives, to never be numb to this violence, and to be made stronger as we are sent back into the world to be instruments of peace.
Violent deaths are a sorrow we carry together, as a family who has lost siblings. May their memory move us—not toward despair, but toward deeper compassion; not toward division, but toward solidarity; not toward resignation, but toward the hard and holy work of peace.
May the Lord give us peace—
the peace that honors life,
the peace that demands justice,
and the peace that begins with conversion of heart, mind and spirit.
Many Blessings,
Fr. David Convertino, OFM