UVALDE, Texas – In this small city of inconsolable souls, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller called children to the altar as he recited the names of each victim in an elementary school shooting.
The living were stand-ins for the lives loved and lost. There were 19 names of children, most only 10 years old, and two of teachers. This week, the archbishop’s focus has been on the children.
Since the shooting, he has criss-crossed this town on a mission to provide calm in the midst of chaos. He has been a trusted adviser to residents racked by pain and grief. He rushed to the hospital from San Antonio, an hour-and-a-half away, to sit with families as they heard horrid details. Then, he went to a crisis center where parents took part in a morbid ritual of providing DNA swabs to identify bodies.
