Father Bob of Newtown says he was asked by police to go into Sandy Hook School and bless the bodies of the slain children: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/newtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting/hc-newtown-father-bob-20130316-1,0,4418523.story
But…he didn’t go in, in the end. You know, we really can’t judge another’s actions in any particular situation. But we can at least compare it to other experiences. Priests and religious leaders and Buddhist monks and medicine men, when dealing with blessing a body, in my experience, go up to the body, regardless of its condition. That’s the point–to be physically near the body so as to effect the blessing. Are they telling me a priest, knowing it matters to the parents–and matters more than ever in this case–would not go up to the children, would not give them the same respect a battlefield priest would give a fallen soldier? Just because he doesn’t want to see the scene, or the body? I don’t buy it for a minute. Eight or ten of those kids were St. Rose parishioners–he would have gone to the bodies. Once again, something is up.
It’s yet another “I saw the horrific scene…well, except I didn’t” account, if you ask me. Pardon my cynicism…