The archbishop who leads the archdiocese to which Annunciation Catholic Church belongs said the community will need to "work hard to be able to put love in ahead of hatred" after a shooter killed two children and injured many more during a school Mass.

"I think that we should be outraged, really, that this happened, but at some point that has to — we have to go beyond that kind of hatred or that anger and begin to look more broadly at the problems that we have in our society and how we might be able to address them," Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said. "But it's going to take time. I realize that."

Hebda said he's spoken to the parents whose children died in the shooting, as well as survivors and several other members of the community.

"I sure wish that the Lord would do things in a different way. I would never want any family to have to experience that pain," Hebda said. "To try to find the right words, it's inexplicable. And there aren't words really to capture that and yet to try to be close to them and to give a message of hope that God is with them and that God will take good care of their children."

The archbishop said it will be natural for some to be afraid to return to Annunciation, but the community and connection built within the church are now as important as ever.

"Last evening at the prayer service, there were so many people that spoke of their connections to Annunciation," he said. "It's a very special place. I think it's with that kind of strong community support, with that network or that web of love that there's at least the hope that by God's grace they'll be able to move forward."

That sense of community was palpable at Wednesday night's prayer service, Hebda said. When the archbishop met with children who survived the attack, they embraced him, he said.

"I think that was what they needed was to know in some ways that their church was present to them and that their church loved them," Hebda said. "And that, even though it's a great mystery at this point, that there is that possibility of hope and healing."