Minnesota Catholic Leader makes an urgent request to Tim Walz for school safety plans

In a re-lay letter to the Minnesota government Tim WalzThe head of the Minnesota Catholic Congress said Catholic and other non-public schools are in a desperate need to improve safety, saying: “Our schools are under attack.”

The request received no attention, and two years later, when a gunman opened fire on a student at a Minneapolis Catholic school while attending Mass, Catholic leaders killed two people and injured 17 people.

This letter is first of all Daily wire and dispatched by Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference and Tim Benz, president of the private school advocacy group Minnepentent. The letter was sent on April 14, 2023 at the Minnesota Catholic Conference website.

“We write letters on behalf of our respective organizations about urgent and critical needs Minnesota To ensure that our schools are safe, safe, considering recent and ongoing attacks on our schools and our state,” the leader wrote.

In the letter, the leader pointed out the mass shooting Covenant Christian School in NashvilleA week before the letter was sent, he said: “The latest school shooting at a non-public Christian school in Tennessee is a sad confirmation that what we already know – our school is under attack.”

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The leader continued: “In Minnesota, in Minnesota, the level of threats in non-public schools, especially our Jewish and Muslim schools has increased, and we must take the threat very seriously, also wrote: “Last week in Minnesota or our country or our country, the tragedy in Covenant Schools last week must never happen again. ”

Leaders expressed serious concerns about 72,000 students in Minnesota’s independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools, which could be at risk as non-public schools are excluded from the $50 million building and cybersecurity grant program, as well as the state’s Safe School Program, which provides emergency response training, safety measures training, safety training, mental health services and other safety services and other safety services.

Leaders said they were particularly concerned about “the latest and ongoing attacks on schools in our country and our state.”

“We need to make sure all schools have the resources to deal with and prevent these attacks from happening in our schools,” the leader wrote.

The leader continued: “Attacks on any school, whether public, non-public, charter or the ruins of other schools, cannot be tolerated or allowed to occur.

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A spokesman for Gov. Tim Walz told Fox News Digital that “the governor is very concerned about the safety of students and has signed millions of dollars in school safety funds.” (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A spokesman for the Minnesota Catholic Conference confirmed the authenticity of the letter to Fox News figures. Although the spokesperson declined to comment further, they confirmed that the request in the letter was never approved.

The spokesperson also pointed out the meeting and other requests from Minnesota Catholic Bishop In 2022, the state’s school safety program was included in Walz for Catholic and other non-public schools to include.

In a June 2022 video, St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda called on Walz to convene a special meeting of the state legislature to pass a bill that would provide permanent funding to all schools, including non-public schools, for safety enhancement, violence prevention and mental health programs. Fox 9.

According to a recent Minnesota Department of Education policy document outlining the Building and Cybersecurity Grant Program, the program remains only applicable to cooperatives, school districts, or charter schools, and does not include non-public schools.

Additionally, under a statute, a safe school program available on the Minnesota Legislature’s website is outlined, with each school’s funds corresponding to its taxes, indicating that private schools are not eligible for funding.

But, Waltz’s office told Fox News digital numbers that “private schools do get state funding” and that “they are also eligible for school safety center resources, including training.”

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A man walked out of the school at Angel Church when police responded to a mass shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday, August 27, 2025. (Abbie Parr/AP Photo)

A Walz spokesman said: “The governor is very concerned about the safety of students and has signed millions of dollars in school safety funds.”

The spokesman further said that Walz “meets regularly with the Catholic Conference” and that the governor’s office is “committed to working with anyone willing to work with us to stop gun violence and keep our students safe.”

A 23-year-old boy, born in Robert Westman on Tuesday, later renamed his name Robin Westman, opened fire at a mass held at the Catholic Church on Wednesday, where students of the church had attended students from affiliated schools. The attack killed two children and injured 17 people, including 14 children.

FBI Director Kash Patel Sagittarius says He opened fire in a “barbaric” attack on the Mass of the Catholic School in Minneapolis, leaving multiple anti-religious references on his manifesto and guns.

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Patel [Robin] Westman is a male subject and our team gathers information and evidence that this is Family Terrorism Motivation to be hated ideology. ”

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“The subjects left multiple anti-Catholic anti-religious references in the declaration and wrote on guns,” Patel said. “The subject expresses hatred and violence against the Jews, writing ‘Israel must fall ”free Palestine’ and using clear language related to the Holocaust.”

The Minnesota Legislature is currently considering enacting a School Safety Act, the Shield Act, which will increase funding for the national security system. As the bill currently faces, if the bill has passed the law, non-public schools will not qualify for additional security funds.

Greg Wehner of Fox News Digital contributed to the report.