Archive for June 12, 2002

Monastery Gunman Ignored Pleas for Mercy From Monk

This afternoon, the gunman’s daughter told Missouri detectives that in Mr. Jeffress’s youth he was a devout Catholic but that in recent years, he had occasionally attended a Methodist church. Why and when Mr. Jeffress left the Catholic Church remained a mystery, Sergeant Lyon said. That left equally unclear whether there was any tie between the killings and the American Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.

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Possible motive emerges in shooting rampage at Missouri abbey

KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ A long grudge against the Roman Catholic Church associated with his divorce could be a gunman’s motive in the fatal shooting rampage at Conception Abbey this week, authorities said Wednesday.

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Abbey Rampage a Mystery

Officials at the abbey and the seminary college connected to it said they have not found a link between Jeffress and the sex scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, but they left open the possibility of one … The abbey and seminary have been only indirectly connected to the scandal.

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No Motive Yet For Shootings At Abbey

A day after Jeffress killed two monks and wounded two others before turning the gun on himself, police say the shootings don’t make much sense. They say there doesn’t seem to be any link to the sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Roman Catholic church.

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Man, 71, Kills 2 at Missouri Monastery and Then Himself

It was not known whether the attack bore any relation to the sexual abuse scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic church in the United States and provoked several suicides and the shooting of at least one priest, in Baltimore, last month.

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Monastery locked up as killings are probed

Polan said the worst trouble the monks — who lead a simple life of work and prayer — had faced until Monday was a few dollars missing from an outdoor collection box.

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Gunman Kills 2 Monks, Wounds 2 at Missouri Abbey

Rebecca Summers, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which includes Conception, said church authorities had no reason to think the shootings were related to the sex abuse scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church.

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Gunman opens fire in abbey

The quiet of a landmark abbey in rural northwestern Missouri was shattered Monday morning when a 71-year-old man walked into the monastery and shot four monks with an assault rifle, killing two of them, before taking his own life.

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Throughout its history, abbey a place of welcome

(St. Joseph News-Press) CONCEPTION, Mo. — The Benedictine monastery located in the rolling hills of Northwest Missouri was founded in 1873 by the Rev. Frowin Conrad as a community for “ora et Labora,” a Latin phrase meaning prayer and work.

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Catholics throughout area shocked and horrified

Gunshots that broke the peace in the prayerful halls of Conception Abbey on Monday ricocheted in grief, shock and confusion throughout the Catholic community in Northwest Missouri.

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Gunman kills 2 monks at Conception Abbey

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Sheldon Lyon, Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey and Abbot Gregory Polan walk away from Conception Abbey after a gunman went on a shooting spree Monday morning. (JOSH BIGGS/News-Press)

 

CONCEPTION, Mo. — Gunshots startled the peace, prayer and welcome built during the last 129 years by a group of Benedictine brothers.

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Mo. Abbey Gunman Is ‘Mystery Man’

Investigators said they have no evidence connecting the shootings to the sex scandal in which Catholic priests have been accused of molesting youngsters.

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Monks Among Dead In Catholic Abbey Shooting

CONCEPTION JUNCTION, Mo. — Three people, including two monks, were killed and two others were injured after a gunman opened fire at a Roman Catholic abbey in northwest Missouri, authorities said.

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Gunman Kills Two, Self at Missouri Abbey

CONCEPTION, Mo. — A gunman opened fire Monday at a sprawling Roman Catholic abbey, killing two monks and wounding two other people before taking his own life, authorities said.

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Police search for motive in Conception Abbey shooting

CONCEPTION, Mo. (AP) — A 71-year-old man opened fire at a Roman Catholic Abbey, killing two monks and seriously wounding two others before committing suicide in an abbey chapel, authorities said.

A spokeswoman for the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese said the diocese did not know if the shootings early Monday at Conception Abbey Benedictine monastery were related to the sex abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic church for months.

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