LITTLETON, Colo.—Jim Beckman looked out onto the crowd of 1,200 people gathered at a prayer service two days after the unthinkable put Columbine High School on the map.

“The whole nation is watching us,” Beckman told his audience. “The whole country is looking at how we are going to push through this.”

“This” was the slayings of 13 people after an hours-long rampage by a pair of students who then apparently turned their weapons on themselves. Five of the victims were Catholic, and St. Frances Cabrini Church in Littleton held a prayer service April 22 for the shocked and grieving community.

Joining the pastor, Father Kenneth Leone, was Beckman, a nationally known youth leader and speaker, who heads the Rockies hub of the apostolate Life Teen and serves as youth conferences chairman for Franciscan University of Steubenville.

“Have you watched the news?” Beckman asked his listeners. “I turned on the television last night and I had to just shake my head. You know what they are talking about? People are talking about a gun control bill!”

“Hello?” he shouted. “This is not about law — this is not about some politician doing something — this is not about finding someone to fire because they didn’t do their job.

“This is a spiritual problem — there is a spiritual vacuum in our lives, in our society in our world. And if you don’t believe it then you are missing the point.”

He said that when he first heard news of the shootings on April 20, he and his staff immediately began to put together a database of names of the young parishioners who attended Columbine High. They then set out to try to find the students and put them in contact with their parents. By 11:30 p.m., four students were still unaccounted for. Later the staff found out that those four were dead.

Beckman told his audience April 22 he believes that God wants to bring good out of the evil of the shootings. He called it a “wake-up call” to the nation.

“We have got to bring Jesus Christ back into our nation,” he shouted, to wild applause from the assembly.

Beckman pointed out that, for 20 years, Pope John Paul II has been talking about the great Jubilee.

“One of the things he has said we are going to experience is massive conversions,” Beckman said. “He has said there will be an outpouring of people entering our churches.”

“He has launched a campaign to build a hundred new churches in Rome,” he continued. “You ever been to Rome? There’s a church on every street corner and there ain’t nobody in ’em.

“Is he crazy? You bet your life he is. He’s crazy because he believes God is going to do something wonderful. He has said, ‘Open wide the doors’ and be prepared for serious mass conversions.”

Beckman said that, for more than a year, he had been telling his students to look around their high schools and ask themselves what it would take to get their fellow students into church.

“Look at their faces; many of them don’t know God and want nothing to do with God,” Beckman said. “Now tell me, what would it take for you to see those teens come running to church? We have seen it.”

“Kids, teens from Columbine High School, are running to churches,” he continued. “Not just to this church, but churches all over this area. They are running to our churches — are we ready? Are we ready to welcome them?

“We as a Church have got to stand up right now and say there is an answer; there is a hope you can cling to; there is a hope that gives us a reason to go on. Even in the midst of this terrible tragedy, Jesus Christ can give us the reason to carry on.”

On Sunday nights, up to 400 teens gather for Mass at St. Frances Cabrini Church. The young people are part of the Life Teen movement, which exists in 522 parishes in the United States and Canada.

The heart of the Life Teen program is active participation in the liturgy, followed by a meeting that includes discussions of Church teachings or Bible study. The evening concludes with eucharistic adoration.

Life Teen is a national youth ministry fellowship. The main office is in Mesa, Ariz., and there are hub parishes in Atlanta; Hudson, Ohio; St. Louis; and at St. Frances Cabrini.

“The Life Teen network has been keeping us in prayer ever since [the shootings] started,” said Beckman. “Within a couple of hours, thousands of people were praying for us.”

On April 25, all Life Teen groups canceled their Sunday programs and instead had their youths praying before the Blessed Sacrament for the Columbine students and their families. Beckman told his audience, “We will have 50,000 teens praying for us.”

—Peter Droege