MANILA, Philippines – Filipino cardinals voiced concern about the shooting incident at a Jesuit university in the southern Philippines, a rare act of school violence in Asia’s largest Catholic-majority country.

The shooter, a student at Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School, fired at a teacher and another student before turning the weapon on himself. The teacher survived but the two high school students, including the shooter, died on Tuesday.

Outside Ateneo de Zamboanga, the public witnessed the attack through a video that the shooter livestreamed on social media.

The Ateneo de Zamboanga incident was the country’s second school shooting this year, following a June 22 attack at a public high school in Tacloban City in the central Philippines. The Tacloban tragedy killed three minors and injured 20 others.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery of Evangelization, spoke about the shooting incident during a Mass on Wednesday at the parish of the Philippines’ premiere state university in Manila. Tagle was visiting his home country after a pastoral visit to New Guinea.

Tagle, 69, said he wondered “what could be passing through the mind and heart of a child” who plans such a shooting incident.

“What does such a heart yearn for?” He asked.

In the face of such tragedy, the cardinal appealed to parents and grandparents “to show the youth a human heart.”

“But if at your dining table, everyone — husband, wife, and children — is looking at cellphones instead of each other, then it’s all for nothing,” said Tagle, a graduate of Ateneo de Zamboanga’s sister school, Ateneo de Manila.

“The hearts of the youth are already being guided by video games and AI, which teach them how to make decisions and act,” said Tagle, “yet AI has no heart. Games have no heart.”

“Only human beings have a heart,” Tagle said, “so, why are we selling our hearts to heartless machines?”

‘National therapy’

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, 67, said the Philippines needs a “national therapy” after witnessing two school shooting incidents this year.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, he pointed out that today’s Filipino teenagers “spent part of their childhood during the years of the violent drug war” under former president Rodrigo Duterte.

The drug war — over which Duterte is currently detained at the International Criminal Court — killed about 30,000 drug suspects, according to human rights groups.

David said he is “not suggesting that the drug war ‘caused’ these school shootings,” but said one cannot dismiss the “larger culture” as a possible factor.

“We need to learn again that a human being does not cease to possess dignity because he is accused of a crime. We need to stop laughing when leaders threaten to kill people,” said David, who is also an Ateneo de Manila graduate.

“We need adults to stop teaching children — sometimes without realizing it — that cruelty is strength, that humiliation is leadership, that vengeance is justice, or that some lives are disposable,” said David.

Jesuit Father Ernald Andal, president of Ateneo de Zamboanga, said in an update on Thursday that the university’s psychological team has supported over 200 school community members, and that the school is ready to support others who seek their help.

Andal, 50, said classes for grade school and junior high school students will remain suspended for the next two weeks, with the school providing them with “non-academic activities” that focus on “emotional well-being, reconnection, and readiness to return.”

“We again ask everyone to protect the privacy and dignity of the families. They are carrying a loss that no statement can fully express. Every photograph, post, or unverified story can add to their pain,” said Andal.

“We will not hurry anyone through grief,” he said, “we will meet our students, our families, and our personnel where they are.”

Founded in 1912, Ateneo de Zamboanga is one of 11 Jesuit schools in the Philippines, a country of 86 million Catholics. The school is located in the port city of Zamboanga in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, where most of the country’s seven million Muslims live.

Ateneo de Zamboanga is known for its culture of diversity, as it is one of the few Catholic schools in the Philippines with a Muslim student population of 25 to 30 percent. Home to the Ateneo Peace Center, the school is also often recognized for its emphasis on peace.

‘Nihilistic violent extremism’

In a statement, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condoled with Ateneo de Zamboanga and the victims’ families “over a tragedy that should never have happened.” He also directed law enforcers to thoroughly investigate the incident and ensure it will not happen again.

Senator Risa Hontiveros condemned the shooting incident while recalling her probe into a similar tragedy in Tacloban City.

Hontiveros had linked the Tacloban shooting incident to nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), which is said to psychologically manipulate children and encourage violence through online games.

While saying that the Zamboanga shooting incident cannot yet be linked to NVE, she said that society’s problems become “far bigger and deeper” when “violence is not only committed but displayed, emulated, and even livestreamed.”

Hontiveros vowed to “continue our work against NVE” and other threats to children’s safety.

In an earlier Senate hearing on the Tacloban shooting incident, psychology professor Liane Alampay pointed out that online games “are only one of the reasons” why young people turn to violence. She pointed to “systemic” causes that include a history of bullying and personal encounters with “models of violence.”

While the causes and the motives for the recent tragedy remain unclear, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has urged the public “to refrain from speculation, unverified information, sensationalized commentary, and the unnecessary sharing of images or details that may further wound those affected.”

“May this tragedy awaken in all of us a deeper commitment to making every school a place of safety, care, vigilance, and peace, where the protection of every child and every member of the school community remains a shared moral responsibility,” CEAP said.

Solidarity among Jesuit schools

Other Jesuit schools stood in solidarity with Ateneo de Zamboanga.

“In moments of tragedy, the distance between our Ateneo communities disappears. Today, our thoughts are with the Ateneo de Zamboanga University community with the families and loved ones of those whose lives were lost,” said Ateneo de Manila University, the most prominent among the Philippines’ Jesuit schools, in a statement on Tuesday.

Ateneo de Manila said it was “perplexed and alarmed” at “how young adults are able to access dangerous weapons and bring them to institutions meant for learning and growth.” It then called on authorities “to swiftly investigate the matter to give clarity to those victimized by armed violence.”

Ateneo de Naga University said that “as a fellow Jesuit university, we share in the call to make our schools communities where every person is treated with dignity and where safety, compassion, dialogue, and care for one another are lived realities.”

“Moments like this also call us to reflect more deeply on the circumstances that give rise to violence and on our shared responsibility to build communities rooted in respect, understanding, reconciliation, and peace,” Ateneo de Naga said.

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