U.S. colleges offer prayers for Virginia Tech, counseling to students

Published: 2007-04-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Shaken students and employees at colleges and universities across the country turned to prayer, counseling and various types of outreach as they tried to understand the carnage that left at least 33 people dead at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., April 16. Campus ministry programs in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York were among those compiling books of prayers from students for their counterparts at the southwestern Virginia university. That same day and in the following week, special Masses and vigils were planned at campuses in many states. Colleges thousands of miles away were quick to offer counseling help for their own students as they tried to come to grips with the idea that people like themselves could be killed while attending a German or engineering class. Catholic campus ministry programs at state and private universities began putting together books of prayers from their students which will be forwarded to Virginia Tech. At William Paterson University in New Jersey, Father Louis J. Scurti, the Catholic campus minister, was planning a memorial Mass later in the week and encouraging representatives of other faiths to participate. "It's what we can do to be in solidarity with the students of Virginia Tech," he told Catholic News Service.

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