The Las Vegas shooting back on October 1 was a harrowing experience that killed 58 individuals and injured hundreds more, but a Catholic priest has returned to the place where shooter Stephen Paddock ran amok and blessed the hotel room where the crime took place.
Rev. Clete Kiley of Chicago, Illinois visited the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Oct. 18 together with UNITE HERE!, a union of hospitality workers, to comfort the hotel's staff and provide spiritual healing, reported Newsweek.
While he was praying with them, the hotel manager approached him and asked if he could perform a blessing since the FBI has just released Paddock's room back to the hotel. He agreed, but when he reached the 32nd floor, he noticed a temporary door blocking the hallway. Kiley tried opening the door, but he felt an opposition.
"I felt like I was being pushed back, like don't come in here," he said. "On the inside, I'm going, 'Oh no, you have to go.'"
He pushed through and saw bullet holes all across the hall and plaster covering the floor. When he got to Paddock's room, he recited the Catholic prayer, "'St. Michael, the Archangel,' to defend us in battle."
"When I stepped in the room, I really felt a real profound silence," he said. "I immediately noticed the broken windows covered from outside. It was very powerful to see the physical damage."
Kiley also told The Chicago Sun-Times that the windows that the shooter broke have been replaced, and the place where he died was marked. However, there were no traces of blood because the carpeting had already been removed.
"Then, I noticed the absolutely most stunning hotel room view you could imagine. I found there was no way to hold any of this together rationally. I kept saying this is just evil, raw evil," he said. "So I blessed the water according to the Roman ritual and then began to bless my companion and me, and then each and every corner of the suite."
"I blessed each bullet and room going back down the hall. I used the prayer for the blessing of a house and extended the prayer with an invocation to the Holy Spirit to descend in this place with light, joy, peace, hope and life," he continued.
As Kiley reflected on the experience, he realized that the blessing he did was just "one small step" in the healing process for the people of Las Vegas. But he has high hopes for "spiritual cleansing" because of the kindness he saw among the workers and their compassion for one another.
Seeing them move on from the tragedy strengthened his belief that hospitality will always be stronger than fear, and love will always trump hate. "God's grace is at work in some marvelous ways," he said.
