Church of the Annunciation will need to undergo reconsecration ceremony because shooting brought in presence of evil

The Minneapolis church where two children were killed and 17 others hurt in a mass shooting will need to be ceremoniously purified before parishioners can once again attend Mass in the building.Even after investigators strip crime scene tape from the Church of the Annunciation, a man of God will need to perform the “Rite of Reparation of a Church Profaned” before it is suitable for prayer again.“The archbishop or his delegate, another bishop, will come and we consecrate the church, because there’s the presence of evil has encroached on the reality of what is a sacred space,” Rev.Patrick Flanagan, a professor of theology at St.

John’s University, explained to The Post.A reconsecration ceremony occurs whenever a church suffers destruction on any scale — including last year at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Astoria after it was used as the backdrop for a racy and explicit Sabrina Carpenter music video.While the mass shooting at the hands of killer Robin Westman is much more severe than the pop princess fiasco, the ritual is essentially the same, said Flanagan.The ceremony is meant to “drive out anything that is destructive of the integrity of the holiness of the church.” The Rite of Reparation of a Church Profaned, sometimes referred to as the reconsecration or re-dedication of a church, is outlined in the Church law.“Sacred places, when they have been violated gravely and scandalously, are not to be used for sacred functions until the harm is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books,” the religious law states.The process itself looks very similar to a regular mass, but includes a series of additional prayers and anointings to re-sanctify the space.Bernard Hebda, the archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, will use chrism, holy water and incense to “flood the sacred space with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit and reestablish the presence of God that was compromised or stolen in this...