[powerpress]

Friday’s school shooting is a tragedy of unprecedented proportion.  The horror of this mass murder is felt across the world, and I’m hardly alone in expressing my shock and horror at what a single madman did.

Authorities in Connecticut released the names of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Here are the names of the children who were so senselessly murdered:

• Charlotte Bacon
• Daniel Barden
• Olivia Engel
• Josephine Gay
• Ana Marquez-Greene
• Dylan Hockley
• Madeline Hsu
• Catherine Hubbard
• Chase Kowalski
• Jesse Lewis
• James Mattioli
• Grace McDonnell
• Emilie Parker
• Jack Pinto
• Noah Pozner
• Caroline Previdi
• Jessica Rekos
• Avielle Richman
• Benjamin Wheeler
• Allison Wyatt

My most sincere thoughts and prayers are with the families of these 20 children.  I cannot even begin to fathom the horror they are going through right now.  What I can understand is that Christmas will forever be the most horrible time of the year for the rest of their lives.

My thoughts and prayers also go out to the families of the adults who were murdered by this lunatic:

The names of the adult victims are:

• Rachel Davino, 29;
• Dawn Hocksprung, 47;
• Anne Marie Murphy, 52;
• Lauren Russeau, 30;
• Mary Sherlach, 56;
• Victoria Soto, 27.

May God’s mercy be upon all of these families… and may they all find some solace in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy and horror.