March (Web-only) 2002

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

Priest killed as he finishes preaching
Larry Penzes, the 50-year-old priest of Our Lady of Peace Church in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York, was shot to death at the altar yesterday while celebrating Mass. Eileen Tosner, a 72-year-old parishioner, was also killed. Their murderer reportedly just walked in, pulled a .22-caliber rifle out of his coat, and opened fire. Others in the congregation—there were about 40 at the time, most of them elderly—chased the shooter out of the church and took his gun. He reportedly ran home. Police arrested Peter Troy, a 34-year-old with no apparent connections to the church.

"National Catholic officials said they could recall no other killing of a priest in this country while he was celebrating Mass," reported The New York Times, though "the killing of Father Penzes prompted some to compare the circumstances of his death to the killing of the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was shot while saying Mass in 1980. In 1985, a deranged man killed a priest in Onalaska, Wis., inside his church."

"This appears to be a fatal mix of a grievance, mental illness and a firearm," says an editorial in Long Island's Newsday. "Penzes was known as a man with a large heart, who succeeded in drawing large numbers of people into active roles in the parish. At 50, he had many productive years ahead of him, but a spasm of violence, aided by the barrel of a rifle, has cut him down and broken the heart of his people."

The editorial has an implied call for gun control, but a column in the paper calls for spiritual reflection. This sad event, writes Matthew Carolan, "reminds us of why we must pray. Because there is evil in the world. And because we do not know the day or the hour, but only that we must ...