Kazan, May 12, 2021
Photo: tatmitropolia.ru
The Kazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church is providing assistance to the families of those killed and injured in the recent school shooting in Kazan.
Priests of the diocese are visiting schoolchildren who were taken to the Republic’s Children’s Hospital and are available to speak with their relatives and friends. The diocese’s Mercy service is also providing psychological and social assistance to the relatives of the victims, reports the Metropolia of Tatarstan.
A gunman attacked a Kazan school on Tuesday morning, killing 7 children and 2 adults, and injuring at least 21 others, mostly children.
“We pray for the repose of the souls of the victims, for the recovery of the victims, and we want to support our prayers with active participation in the lives of all those affected by the grief,” said Olga Varganova, head of the diocesan Mercy service.
Priests also took Holy Communion to the children in the hospital before their scheduled surgeries and procedures.
With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill of Kazan and Tatarstan, memorial Liturgies and panikhidas were served in all churches and monasteries of the Kazan Diocese yesterday and today.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill offered condolences to the President of the Tatarstan Republic Rustam Minnikhanov, saying: “I offer my prayers to the Lord, that He might strengthen the relatives and friends of the victims, grant them the strength to survive the ordeal that has befallen them, and grant the wounded a speedy and complete healing.”
Met. Kirill of Kazan also offered condolences to President Minnikhanov and the families and friends of the victims. “I am praying before the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, that through her intercession the All-Merciful Lord may grant rest to His newly-departed servants in the Heavenly abodes,” he said.
Met. Kirill and local priests also laid flowers at the memorial erected at the site of the shooting.
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