Priest says his opposition to guns based on personal experience

Published: 2004-04-22

PITTSBURGH (CNS) -- Father Greg Swiderski, who joined in protesting the National Rifle Association's annual convention and gun show in Pittsburgh, said his opposition to handguns is personal. The priest, chaplain at the headquarters of the Sisters of Divine Providence in McCandless Township, once had to celebrate a funeral Mass for a teenager who committed suicide with his stepfather's rifle. He said there were no words to describe his feelings of frustration and pain over the teen's death. "It leaves me speechless," he told the Pittsburgh Catholic, newspaper of the Pittsburgh Diocese. Father Swiderski was among the members of Confluence Against Gun Violence, a coalition of Pittsburgh organizations that mobilized to oppose the NRA leadership and its annual convention and gun show April 16-20.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .