Catholics in Twin Cities grappling with Floyd’s death, related rioting

By Maria Wiering

Catholic News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — For three hours on the morning of May 30, Father Joe Gillespie walked Lake Street in Minneapolis, surveying the destruction in his neighborhood.

The Walgreens a block from his parish church, St. Albert the Great, was a burned-out shell, its ceiling completely collapsed. Plywood covered most business’ windows, either because they had been smashed out, or to protect them from further vandalism. Graffiti covered buildings’ facades, some of it memorializing George Floyd, an African American man who died while in the custody of a white police officer during an arrest on Memorial Day.