The Minneapolis killings prove that evil exists and hates good. The act was so heinous that Satan unmasks himself by showing his role in inspiring the shooter’s hateful messages against the Catholic Church. Satan is real and working inside the postmodern world despite the liberal premise to the contrary. He showed his fiendish face at Annunciation Catholic Church.
There was something different about the Minneapolis shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. It broke free from the standard narrative accompanying these all-too-frequent and tragic scenes. This incident could not be addressed with usual commentaries about guns, distressed young males or violence in America.
Although present in other shootings, this particular case revealed itself as something much more sinister. Robert Westman, the confused young man identifying as a woman, hated everyone, not just specific groups. He did not hide his Satanic proclivities.
A Shift Away from Liberal Premises
This was not the case of a lonely soul that went awry. He showed a preferential option for evil taken to its most radical consequences.
The extreme fury of the shooting shook the foundations of the present liberal order that values freedom over moral order. This liberal state of things once relied on the remnants of Christian morality to keep things working. Those remnants can no longer hold back the postmodern chaos that promises to uphold every fantasy and unbridled passion.
Thus, the Minneapolis shooting changes the debate. Three liberal premises must now be rejected to stop events like that of Minneapolis from recurring.
A Refusal to Accept a Moral Law
The first premise is the liberal gospel that claims that acts are morally neutral to the extent that they do not interfere with the freedom of others. Individuals should thus be free to do and be whatever they want—even if harmful to their own well-being.
In the case of the killer, the individual felt free to identify as someone he was not. He exhibited Satanic ties with his use of symbols and blasphemous expressions. He felt free to admire and seek to imitate mass murderers and child killers. He posted his desires on social media. He lived in a fantasy world of options where everything was possible and nothing was certain.
The passion of his desires was such that it was only a matter of time before he would seek to put them into practice.
Thus, to combat these events, it must be admitted that there are objective standards that define good and evil. Individuals are morally bound to conform to a moral law (also called natural law) found in human nature, which governs and limits one’s behavior according to God’s plan for humanity.
Liberal society refuses to acknowledge this truth. As a result, countless Westmans wait in the dark shadows of postmodern society for the opportunity to put their evil desires into effect. The liberal premise that individuals can be and do anything they want provides cover for them.
Normalizing Abnormal Behavior
The second premise involves society’s role in fostering these incidents. It holds that society’s function is to facilitate the practice of freedom by coordinating everyone in their different desires. In its extreme applications, it discourages moral limits, ideas and norms that restrict the individual. It celebrates that which is extravagant and deviant. When society normalizes abnormal behavior, it creates cover for events like those in Minneapolis.
The killer lived a bizarre life of nonconformity with moral behavior. He hated everyone. His confused sexuality, promiscuous lifestyle and Satanic sympathies displayed an almost godlike desire to define his own reality and reject any social restraint that might be imposed. His final act expressed his defiance of a society that would not fully accept his abnormality and a Church that affirmed a moral social order.
God’s Sovereignty Over Society
The third liberal premise is the most serious one. It holds that God does not have any sovereignty over the world. Society must be organized as if God does not exist. Religion is a mere personal choice. Everyone is free to live inside or outside His law. God is, at best, the absent clockmaker who sets the universe in motion and watches from afar. Thus, the liberal does not believe in sin or the existence of malice aforethought.
The Minnesota case shows that when God is taken from the scene, Satan enters. In this case, the Satanic element was much more evident than in other shootings.
The killer’s messages mocked and insulted Our Lord in His Passion and in the Blessed Sacrament. He used Satanic imagery and messages. He claimed himself imprisoned by evil thoughts that he could not escape, saying, “I know this is wrong, but I can’t seem to stop myself.” His videos are eerie and sinister.
Focus on the Catholic Church
However, what was most shocking was how he was laser-focused on targeting Christ and the Catholic Church at Mass. He laughed at the photo of the bloodied Head of Our Lord Jesus Christ that he had attached to a gun target.
This was an act of hatred and persecution against the Catholic Church. He sought to kill innocent Catholic schoolchildren.
The killings prove that evil exists and hates good. The act was so heinous that Satan unmasks himself by showing his role in inspiring the shooter’s hateful messages against the Catholic Church. Satan is real and working inside the postmodern world despite the liberal premise to the contrary. He showed his fiendish face at Annunciation Catholic Church.
A Refusal to Change
Such revelations should cause political leaders and Church officials to change their perspectives on why these things are happening and how they might be stopped. They must realize that no system in the world can monitor all the potential Westmans waiting for their chance to defy God’s moral order. An evil and powerful force is unleashed in society that cannot be opposed by ordinary means.
What is so disconcerting about the whole affair is that the response to the massacre changed nothing. Everyone—both on the left and the right, politicians as well as clerics—has reverted to their default positions inside the framework of the liberal premises.
The debate is often reduced to deciding between adding more security and allowing fewer guns. There is no need to promote individual or societal morals. There is no need for restrictions on unbridled license. Satan need not be combated directly.
Everyone rightly mourns the victims, the dead and wounded effects of this cowardly act. No one addresses the cause found in Satan, the evil he spreads, and the destruction of God’s moral law.
Change must come from within hearts and society. Either society returns to God, or these things will continue happening. When a society abandons God and His moral law, no one is safe, not even little Catholic children, praying before classes during their first week back to school.
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The featured image, uploaded by Chad Davis, is a photograph: “Police at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on August 27, 2025 following a mass shooting that killed 2 children and injured 17 others, 14 of them children.” This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.