The Minneapolis church where two children were killed and 17 others hurt in a mass shooting will need to be ceremoniously purified before parishioners can once again attend Mass in the building.
Even after investigators strip crime scene tape from the Church of the Annunciation, a man of God will need to perform the “Rite of Reparation of a Church Profaned” before it is suitable for prayer again.
“The archbishop or his delegate, another bishop, will come and we consecrate the church, because there’s the presence of evil has encroached on the reality of what is a sacred space,” Rev. Patrick Flanagan, a professor of theology at St. John’s University, explained to The Post.
A reconsecration ceremony occurs whenever a church suffers destruction on any scale — including last year at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Astoria after it was used as the backdrop for a racy and explicit Sabrina Carpenter music video.
While the mass shooting at the hands of killer Robin Westman is much more severe than the pop princess fiasco, the ritual is essentially the same, said Flanagan.
The ceremony is meant to “drive out anything that is destructive of the integrity of the holiness of the church.”
The Rite of Reparation of a Church Profaned, sometimes referred to as the reconsecration or re-dedication of a church, is outlined in the Church law.
“Sacred places, when they have been violated gravely and scandalously, are not to be used for sacred functions until the harm is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books,” the religious law states.
The process itself looks very similar to a regular mass, but includes a series of additional prayers and anointings to re-sanctify the space.
Bernard Hebda, the archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, will use chrism, holy water and incense to “flood the sacred space with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit and reestablish the presence of God that was compromised or stolen in this case by the violent act of killing,” Flanagan said.
The altar will be a major focus of this re-consecration, as well as particular points of the church where the violence occurred.
Additionally, candles sprinkled throughout the church will be replaced and burned to signify that spaces where the building has been anointed. Every year on the anniversary of the consecration, the candles will be lit again.
The entire ceremony will last approximately 90 minutes to two hours, Flanagan estimates.
Whether the re-consecration ceremony will welcome the public is yet to be determined, but Flanagan says the re-purification is typically conducted in private.
Whether the community even wants to return to the Church of the Annunciation is another unknown.
“A lot of healing needs to occur because these people are traumatized forever,” said Flanagan.
You have to wonder if these people will ever go back to that space. Just being in that space again, they’ll just be reliving those memories and looking over their shoulders for someone with a shotgun.”
It is not yet clear when the Church of the Annunciation expects to schedule its reconsecration ceremony — the site is still under investigation as a crime scene.
In the meantime, plans for weekend Masses have been moved to the adjoining Annunciation School Auditorium. While schools are not consecrated, they are blessed and can accommodate Masses.
Earlier this week, the nearby Basilica of Saint Mary hosted an Interfaith Prayer Service for the victims of the mass shooting — most of whom were students attending a back-to-school liturgy.
Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, were praying in the pews of Annunciation Church just before 8:30 a.m. when a hail of bullets broke through the church’s stained glass windows, killing them.
Another 17 students were injured.
Their killer, Robin Westman, had attended the school years prior to the savage slaying.