The news out of Minneapolis this morning is horrific. I hesitate to post too many details, because they are still coming in. But evil happened at Annunciation Catholic Church during the parish school’s beginning-of-the-school-year Mass.

“He struck children and worshipers,” the police chief, Brian O. Hara, said in a press conference. He confirmed that two children have been killed. Two are in critical condition. Many more are injured.

The gunman killed himself “in the rear of the church.”

Yesterday, there was a shooting outside a Catholic high school in the same city that killed one person and injured six others.

At the pope’s alma mater, Villanova University, there have been a series of shooting hoaxes on campus as students have returned to school. One happened during an orientation Mass in the main chapel.

It’s sickening. Terrifying.

The mayor and others will make speeches. No legislation is going to undo evil. There is a deep sickness in our culture — some of it is the actual sickness of untreated mental illness.

Back-to-school season should be wonderful. Reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. It should not be about death and fear and violence and pure evil.

The mayor did the usual knock on “thoughts and prayers” as a response to such unspeakable acts — while acknowledging that children and adults inside Annunciation Church this morning were praying.

God be with the families who are dealing with the worst today. And everyone suffering and serving in the Annunciation community.