This was a bad experience for a priest- to be attacked while saying Mass!  The attacker had a mental problem. When showing little boys how to serve Mass, I would sometimes tell about this event...and they were always impressed. “So when you are an altar boy, up there in the sanctuary with the priest, PROTECT THE PRIEST WITH YOUR LIFE!” The little boys would become serious instantly...this is real stuff, and probably get more dangerous in the near future.
Didn't Our Lord say:" ...and your  heart shall rejoice: and your joy no man shall take from you."?
John XVI, 22

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Unofficial.

From VERBUM, Spring 2003
A Shot in the Sanctuary on January 19th, Father Greig Gonzales was shot at during Mass in St. Jude's Church in Eddystone, PA, by one of his parishioners. While the bullet only grazed his shoe, the media version of the tale needs completing. VERBUM Interviewed him to get his own reflections on this latest development in the dangers of the modern apostolate.

VERBUM: Tell us a bit about yourself, Father.

Fr. Gonzales: I grew up in Louisiana, and then I had 16 years of seminary formation. Ten of those years were "pre-seminary" formation in and out of the Novus Ordo, and I had six years of solid, Traditional formation. I was ordained, by the grace of God, in 1995.

  My first assignment was in Great Britain, at St. Mary's house in Lancashire, the Northwest. Basically, we covered Scotland, Northern England and most of Wales. I taught music part-time at St. Michael's School, and later I was teaching full-time, religion and other subjects. I was in the District of England until eight months ago.

VERBUM: Did your previous work prepare you in any way for what happened in January?

Fr. Gonzales: No. I mean, you can have run-ins with some faithful who start yelling at you. Or the priest can step on toes out of ignorance, or sometimes he needs to correct the faithful, and so they start to fight back. But not with guns!

VERBUM: Tell us about the events of January 19th.

Fr. Gonzales: Well, I can't give an exact chronological order. It felt like an eternity — well, it was almost my eternity, if he had pulled the trigger the second time! I reckon it's by the intercession of Our Lady and the Holy Angels that he didn't.

  It was when I was finishing up Low Mass on Sunday morning. I was returning to the altar with the ciborium, up the steps. I picked up the cover, genuflected and I was about to cover it when I heard, "Father, don't cover that." I just turned and I thought maybe that he wanted Holy Communion. I recognized the voice somewhat as one of the faithful. So I just gave him a sign to quiet down and to kneel down, and again he said, "Father, leave that alone. Don't cover it. Father, do you feel that this is déjâ vu for you?" It perplexed me — I'd never been in such a situation before. His family and other men were trying to come up through the altar gates to talk to him, and other groups of men were approaching, who had training on how to get a gun and keep it from going off. So things were working according to God's providential care.

  But a shot was fired. When it was fired, it hit me on the foot, the instep. And
I was thinking, "I could look down. I could be bleeding. Jesus mercy, Mary help." I made an act of contrition. Of course the faithful were thinking, "He's so admirable and calm." I was perfectly in fright, fearful fright. I was thinking, "I'm going to be killed; eternity is about to begin! Jesus mercy, Mary help."

  But we were lucky. Some faithful could easily have ended up dead themselves from trying to subdue the aggressor. Our Lady surely obtained our safety on that day. The policeman on the case, who is not of the Faith, said, "It was a miracle that no one was hurt today in this place."

VERBUM: Was this another case of revolt against the priest? It didn't seem to be personal.

Fr. Gonzales: Some did say that my sermons were too long. I admit I am no great orator! But the most you might get is that people would walk out. Maybe I was the final straw with the aggressor. He seemed to have a certain imbalance, and the family was trying to help. Depression medications can cause psychotic behavior. Maybe there were a lot of things floating around in his mind.

  Normally he was in the back of the chapel, listening to rock 'n' roll through a little tape player. He popped it out of his Missal cover. One of the faithful said it was Heavy Metal, and that it was played so loud she could hear it. And Heavy Metal is, well, heavy. Heavy with Satan's messages.

VERBUM: Other priests have been asking about what happened. What about their experiences?

Fr. Gonzales: Well, Fr. James Haynos was held at gunpoint after an Easter Vigil Mass. Fr. Zendejas was in Columbia and he was shot at by police in a high-speed car chase. It was not until they reached the police station that the officers realized they had the wrong guy. He almost ended up dead. So I guess all of us priests can find ourselves in some difficult situations!

  As priests, we're going to say things in the confessional or in preaching that will upset some people. What they should do is discuss any problems with the priest, either face to face or in the confessional. Since Vatican II, though, moral theology is ever-changing according to "situation ethics." In Tradition, of course, Truth doesn't change.

VERBUM: How is this instructive for seminarians? How does it bode for our future as priests?

Fr. Gonzales: The essential things for a priest are to do his duty and have devotion to Our Lord, Our Lady and the Holy Angels and Saints. The apostolate is preaching the Truth, whether it is from the pulpit, the confessional, in spiritual direction or in sacramental preparation. I mean, you always try to do it in a kind way, but sometimes you have to be a bit on the firm Side with people. Just be prepared, because you never know when someone's going to get angry because of what you have said. And also keep your ears open, so that mumbling and grumbling about the priest doesn't go unnoticed.


  Priests must preach the Gospel, the Truth, and not let it be watered down to keep people happy, to be "nice" and complacent in this world. We know the teaching of Christ, of the Church. Either people accept it, or they deal with the wrath of God.

VERBUM: Any final comments?

Fr. Gonzales: I really don't think it was personal. With the Novus Ordo, this can be brought about by a bad priest, but as far as I know, that doesn't have anything to do with this. It's just a case of a lot of things going wrong, going bad. He was mentally unbalanced. Why did he wait until after Holy Communion before I got the Blessed Sacrament into the Tabernacle? It's the mental imbalance creating a break with reality, the devil using that as an opportunity to attack the Blessed Sacrament and the priest. With all the devils in the world today, they will use any opportunity they can to desecrate.

  The family's going through a lot. We're trying to help him as he sits in prison, to lift the censure incurred by attacking a priest. He is still a soul to be saved — we want to save his soul. Hopefully he can become stable, where he won't try to hurt me or anybody else. We've got to pray that Our Lady and the Holy Angels can help him over his mental imbalances.

VERBUM: Thanks for your time, Father. We will pray for the safety and success of your apostolate.
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Additional info : https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2003/01/20/man-arrested-at-church-after-bullet-bounces-off-priests-shoe/