A Catholic church in Uvalde, Texas, has opened a new, onsite counselling facility to provide ongoing community healing and support following the 2022 mass shooting at a primary school. Source: OSV News.
The Robb Elementary School held a grand opening ceremony on September 6, celebrating with key community partners and leaders in attendance. Dedication of the facility occurred immediately following the celebration of a community-wide Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
“We are humbled and honoured to support this new centre for healing in the Uvalde community,” Fr Jack Wall, president of the Catholic Extension Society, said in a statement.
“We pray that it will be a source of hope to those who receive services here, reminding them that they are not alone or abandoned in their search for peace.”
A Chicago-based nonprofit, Catholic Extension was founded in 1905 to build up Catholic faith communities in underserved regions. According to a news release, Catholic Extension, which “has a rich and long-standing history with the Uvalde community and helped build Sacred Heart Catholic Church and school over a century ago, provided funding for the facility”.
The counselling facility “will be made available to the entire Uvalde community as families and individuals continue the long process of healing” in the wake of the mass shooting that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers, “and left countless other bystanders, families and friends of the victims physically and psychologically wounded,” the release said.
Sacred Heart Church in Uvalde “has played a pivotal role” in helping the community heal since the mass shooting, according to Catholic Extension.
To date, the Chicago-based nonprofit has awarded 30 full scholarships to children of Robb Elementary who sought to transfer to Sacred Heart Elementary in 2022 as means to heal.
Additionally, Catholic Extension has partnered with the Uvalde-based Teresian nuns to support camps for children, therapeutic programs and outreach to families in Uvalde.
FULLS TORY
Uvalde church opens new counseling facility (OSV News)
