Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
by the Divine Power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Pope Leo XIII wrote the Saint Michael prayer in 1884 after supposedly seeing a frightening vision: evil spirits, trying to fulfill Satan’s boast to destroy our Lord’s Church within a century, were engaging in fierce attacks against it.
Although the Pontiff also saw St. Michael casting Satan (also known as the devil) and his demons back into Hell in his vision, he was so horrified by what he had seen he felt compelled to help defend our faith in this struggle.
In the Saint Michael prayer he throws down the gauntlet to “the father of lies” as Jesus calls the devil in John’s Gospel (8:44), by enlisting the help of a very special Archangel.
The above(slightly modified) is taken from the website Our Catholic Prayers.
The St. Michael prayer came to my mind in the wake of the tragic shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. This prayer was undoubtedly known to most of the Catholic school children at Annunciation Parish School in Minneapolis. It is a prayer said every day in school at my own parish school in Wheaton. And it’s a prayer, like all prayer, now being mocked by Leftist politicians in the wake of the school shooting as ineffective to stop evil.
The Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, the same mayor who let his city burn during the George Floyd riots, mocked prayer in his first remarks after the shooting that resulted in 2 dead children and 17 others wounded.
Frey said, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.” His comment doesn’t even make sense. Prayer for the faithful is exactly what we lean on in times of trouble. Sometimes in life, faith is all you have to continue on. Ask soldiers who have been in battle.
Perhaps instead of mockery and offending religious people, the politicians should pray alongside others for God’s protection.
Following that, Frey then admonished and warned people not to villainize the “trans” community, saying:
“Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity. Kids died. This needs to be about them.”
But in that statement, Frey didn’t make it about the kids, he made it about the “trans” community.
It actually doesn’t matter what Frey or other people want to say to distract from the facts of who the shooter was and what ideology he followed. We’re not going to listen to more arguments about gun control or more money for mental health because Frey and his fellow radical progressive politicians refuse to be honest with kids like the shooter and honest with kids about their gender dysphoria.
People immediately made the link to the self-hate of the trans shooter who rejected his sex and then rejected his transition.
The country is looking for answers to a tragedy rooted in self-hate, delusion, and mental illness from an early age. Those answers won’t come from the likes of Jacob Frey.
What we know so far.
What we know is that the shooter attacked the very Catholic elementary school he attended and where his mother worked, and the FBI is investigating the shooting as an anti-Catholic hate crime. The shooter also expressed hatred against Jews.
The shooter was “transgender” and legally changed his name with his mother’s permission at age 17. He regretted his transition.
In one of his journals, he wrote, “I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” “I regret being trans,”
He admired other mass shooters.
He left a manifesto, full of hateful messages and bigotry.
This information, though, leaves society still at a loss for answers to how this young adult moved through childhood to become yet another murderer at the age of 23.
The most revealing piece of information so far came from a seventh-grade ex-friend of the shooter who described him as demonic.
When it is obvious to a fellow 12-year-old that their friend is very troubled at age 12, we need to hear from the parents. They must have some answers.
Where did this self-hate come from?
How did it begin so early?
The parents aren’t talking, though, and reports are that the mother has lawyered up.
Rejecting your sex is a clear sign of mental illness. Teens aren’t old enough to be eccentric and indulge in a fantasy that they are the other sex. The trans agenda is suggested to them as a solution to other problems in their lives. And one doesn’t have to have a PhD in psychology to figure that out.
Colin Wright writing in City Journal about the Minnesota mass shooter in this article, Lessons from the Tragedy in Minneapolis, makes an obvious, but important statement about the shooter, Westman, a statement that many others are making, too:
Westman was not just “trans”; he was profoundly disturbed. His case followed a familiar pattern, in which mental illness precedes the adoption of a transgender identity. Indeed, trans identification is often a coping mechanism for underlying distress rather than its root cause.
Wright then goes on to list the various ways progressive politicians and the media have given “trans” individuals victim status, feeding their alienation, narcissism, and victimhood.
But, does it relieve any distress? Wright, again, summarizes what others are also noting, that going “trans” cures nothing:
Not surprisingly, doing so didn’t resolve his distress. Instead, he became more alienated, more consumed by rage, and more obsessed with violence. His own writings reveal the crushing effect of adhering to a reality-denying ideology:
‘I only keep [my long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself. I can’t cut my hair now as it would be an embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported.’
Instead of healing him, gender ideology only deepened his misery and accelerated his descent.
It may be tempting for people on the right to blame “transgenderism” itself for this tragedy. But most youth swept up in this ideology are not violent. Rather, they are victims, turned into pawns by powerful institutions that exploit their suffering. The medical establishment feeds them pseudoscience about being “born in the wrong body” and profits from irreversible interventions that do nothing to resolve their deeper problems. The political establishment elevates them as a victim class to be used in a new civil rights crusade, seeing their immiseration not as something to be cured but as something to be maintained for leverage.
Re-read the last paragraph.
“Trans” kids are victims, pawns of powerful institutions that exploit their suffering.
Instead of the shooter’s delusion and mental illness being handled with truth, he was fed lies. Certainly by his mother, who signed off on his name change, and likely by a school counselor, doctor, and psychologist.
While some institutions, like hospitals and schools, are backing away now from “trans” procedures and support, many are only doing so out of threats from the Trump administration to cut off federal funding. They aren’t doing it because it’s wrong and a lie. Unlike Europe, which has called for a halt to “trans” procedures on minors after the Cass Report and when common sense became common again, American institutions are still holding on to these harmful thoughts.
Expect more copycat mass shootings attacking religious organizations.
In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker’s public education system is not backing away from the harm of “trans” ideology. Two recent examples at Deerfield Alan B. Shepard Middle School and Conant High School prove that the “trans” agenda is alive and welcomed by the Leftists running schools in Illinois.
In fact, in many public schools, the “trans” agenda is openly promoted. A Wheaton Warrenville South parent shared a picture of history teacher Kyle Hickman’s classroom at curriculum night last week. Displayed prominently at the front of the room is the Progressive Pride Intersex Flag. That flag celebrates the “diversity and inclusion for everyone in the LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) community. It combines elements of the traditional rainbow flag with other LGBTQI+ flags to highlight groups that have sometimes been underrepresented in pride celebrations.”
Who is Hickman trying to influence? What lie is he supporting? Why is this indoctrination allowed in schools?
And the American flag in Hickman’s class is in the back of the room, unnoticed by students during class, who instead can’t help but look at the Progressive Pride Intersex flag instead.
The indoctrination isn’t subtle here; it’s in your face. Will any parent speak up? Why aren’t principals, the superintendent, and school board members saying anything?
They are all cowards. Perpetuating lies is not being kind. Hanging posters in the classroom that are about how you like to have sex – which is what it really is about – is disgusting and an affront to common decency.
In the Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, the adults deceived the King, and the adults pretended along with the deception. It was the young boy who yelled out the truth.
Kids know the truth. The shooter knew the truth. He knew the “trans” thing was a lie. He regretted it. The self-hate turned to hate for everything, and especially hate for the faith that stood for truth.
It’s past time for the adults to own up to their mistakes.
Here’s a list of the recent transgender mass shooters.
- 2025 – Robert Westman, who pretended to be a woman named Robin. Age 23
- 2023 – Audrey Hale is the Nashville shooter who pretended to be a man named Aidan. Age 28
- 2022 – Anderson Lee Aldrich, Colorado Club Q killer, pretended or still pretends to be nonbinary. Age 22
- 2019 – Maya McKinney, a STEM high school shooter in Colorado, pretends to be a boy named Alec. Age 16.
- 2018 – Snochia Moseley was a lesbian who pretended to be a man shot and killed four people in Maryland. Age 26