Correction—A Prayer for Minneapolis, Minnesota

Martyrs of Minneapolis, orate pro nobis

As Father V, Tradical, and others on X have reminded us, we must correct our earlier post A Prayer for Minneapolis, Minnesota. We mistakenly offered prayers for 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, who—as Father V has made clear—were killed in odium fidei, out of hatred for the Catholic Faith. Their deaths are true martyrdom.

Martyrs, having shed their blood for Christ, are already crowned in glory. Thus, as St. Augustine teaches, it is not fitting to pray for them, but rather to commend ourselves to their prayers. As Tradical put it well: “We should pray for the families and friends of the children killed, and for the injured, but not for those killed. As St. Augustine says, it is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves to be commended.”

Therefore, we now pray with greater clarity: for the wounded, for the grieving families, and for the faithful of Annunciation Parish in Minneapolis. We also pray for the conversion of those who scorned prayer and sought to twist this tragedy to serve their demonic ideology and politics. And with confidence, we invoke the intercession of the two child martyrs, Fletcher and Harper, who now reign with Christ and will not forget those who turn to them for strength.

Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, martyrs—pray for us.