Church workers spring to action after Minnesota shooting spree

Published: 2005-03-23

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (CNS) -- As news spread March 21 that a teenager on a shooting spree had killed several people in the small Indian reservation town of Red Lake in northern Minnesota, members of St. Mary's Mission Church swung into action. So did several Benedictine nuns doing pastoral work on the reservation. Franciscan Sister Sharon Sheridan, principal of St. Mary's elementary school, went to Red Lake Hospital and later described the scene as chaotic, with parents rushing in to see if their child had been shot. Sister Sharon said numerous ambulances brought patients to the hospital, after which some transported patients to North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji, 34 miles south. She was joined at the hospital by Father Pat Sullivan, St. Mary's pastor; Mike McNeil, pastoral associate; Benedictine Sister Stephen Kurpiers; and Cheryl Cunningham, a St. Mary's teacher. All comforted the victims and their families and offered spiritual counseling.

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