By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Apr 17, 2025 /
15:31 pm
Catholic students at Florida State University have been praying and assiting their fellow Seminoles amid a mass shooting at the campus on Thursday, a ministry leader there told CNA.
News outlets reported on Thursday afternoon that multiple people had been injured during a shooting on the Tallahassee campus. Officials said the shooter was taken into custody after the incident. The shooting reportedly took place in or near the campus student union.
Sam Nunnally, the Catholic campus ministry director at the university, told CNA via email that the ministry’s parish and facilities “are directly across the street from the FSU student union. So we could hear gunshots as the incident occurred.”
“Many of the students in that area came running up the hill towards the church and remained in lockdown here for the duration of the event,” Nunnally said.
Campus ministry staff have been serving the students food and drink while waiting for the campus to be declared safe, he said.
“Many of our Catholic students have been in prayer, saying rosaries, and helping serve the other students that arrived at our facilities,” he said.
In a 2:50 p.m. tweet on Thursday, the university told community members to “continue to shelter in place.”
“Law enforcement is actively clearing rooms on the main campus,” the school said. “Continue to shelter in place until law enforcement contacts you.”
Referring to the ongoing prayer and service at the Catholic facility, Nunnally said that, as director of the Catholic ministry, “it brings me great joy, even in the midst of sorrow, to see our Catholic students living out their faith real-time in the midst of such a dire situation.”
“We hope that Catholics everywhere will say a prayer for Florida State, the Co-cathedral of St. Thomas Moore, and Catholic Noles,” he said.
This is a developing story.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
