KALAMAZOO, Mich. - In the days after several acts of violence across the country, a church in Kalamazoo took time to remember and reflect.
St. Augustine Cathedral in downtown Kalamazoo met together for a special Mass Monday afternoon after the events last week in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis and Dallas. Of course, Kalamazoo has seen its own senseless acts of violence in 2016 as well, with the mass shooting that killed six in February and five bicyclists being killed in June.
But maybe even the bigger purpose was to start a conversation about to how to bring about changes.
“When people sit down and actually begin to talk to one another, they realize there aren’t as many differences here as [they] might have thought or assumed there were," said Bishop Paul Bradley, who led the mass. “I think it begins with ourselves. It really begins in everyone's homes, it begins in our conversations with parents with their children, it begins with, how can communities really come to talk to one another to be a little more proactive?”
Five officers, including Michigan native Michael Krol, were killed in Thursday's shootings. Bishop Bradley mentioned that as he named the five fallen officers along with the names of Baton Rouge victim Alton Sterling and Minneapolis victim Philando Castile before his reflection.
