Polish bishops call for prayer after gunman kills 6 in Kraków's historic square

The archbishop of Kraków called on the city to stand “together” in prayer after a gunman killed six people in its Main Market Square, a few steps from St. Maryʼs Basilica, on Saturday afternoon.

“We do not want to, we cannot, we are unable to be indifferent at such a moment. We want, we need and we must be together,” Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś wrote in a letter to the faithful on Nov. 7.

“I write ‘us’ because in truth any one of us could have been in the Square at that time, passing where the bullets struck random, unsuspecting people,” the Polish prelate wrote.

Ryś invited residents to a Mass for the dead, the wounded and their families at St. Maryʼs Basilica on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. local time, saying that “the last word does not and cannot belong to hatred.”

The cardinal asked the pastors of the victims' parishes to “be there” for them and give every possible help.

Police said the gunman drove onto the square shortly after 3 p.m. and fired at passersby from his car. Four women and two men were killed, among them three Polish women and a British national. Sixteen people were wounded, including the suspect and two police officers, one of whom was shot three times.…