Dear Members of the Fordham Family,
By now you have likely heard the heartbreaking and gruesome news about the killings of 49 people (and the wounding of at least 20 others) in two New Zealand mosques last night, allegedly by an avowed white supremacist who put out an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim manifesto just before the shootings. My friends, this is where fear and loathing of “the other” always takes us. It is hard to put into words the horror and loss that such an act provokes in our hearts.
An attack upon our Muslim brethren is an attack on all of us. An attack on a mosque is likewise an attack on every church, temple, and other house of worship. It is an attack on decency and an attack on the entire human family. Fordham University condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions of the alleged shooter, and the loathsome ideologies that motivated him. Whether in Christchurch or the Bronx, such ideas are an affront to everything we stand for as a Jesuit, Catholic University, and as human beings.
At noon today we will ring the bells at the University Church and at the Plaza at Lincoln Center in mourning for the dead and wounded in last night’s attack. I know you join me in keeping the victims, and their families and loved ones, in your thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely,
Joseph M. McShane, S.J.
