PRESIDENT Barack Obama quoted from the book of Revelation as he
met families of the dead and injured after the shootings in
Colorado at a showing of the latest Batman film, The Dark
Knight Rises.
Visiting within 48 hours of the shootings, President Obama said:
"Scripture says that 'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor
crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed
away.'"
He told grieving families that he came to spend time with them
not as a president, but as a father and husband.
He visited each family who had lost someone, as well as those
who were injured. Twelve people died - the youngest a six-year- old
girl - and 58 were injured, when the late-night audience in Aurora
was attacked with tear gas and bullets.
The man accused of the shootings, James Holmes, aged 24,
appeared in court on Monday, with dyed red hair. It is said by
police that he referred to himself as the Batman villain, "the
Joker".
A prayer vigil was held on Sunday evening in Aurora, and prayers
were said in churches across the country for the victims. A
statement posted on the website of St John's Cathedral in the state
capital, Denver, said: "This shooting is a terrible tragedy, and it
is a great loss that senseless killing has become a part of our
national life in recent decades."
It is not the first time that mass shootings have happened in
this US state. In 1999, at a high school in Columbine, 17 miles
away from Aurora, two students killed two classmates and one
teacher, and wounded another 21 students, before taking their own
lives.
The Bishop of Colorado, the Rt Revd Robert O'Neill, sent a
pastoral letter to be read in all churches on the Sunday after the
cinema shootings. He said that churches had responded immediately,
opening their doors and ministering to those who needed to talk and
grieve.
President Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, also
quoted scripture in a speech hours after the killings - although
there are suggestions that his precise reference was to The
Book of Mormon.
He said: "We can offer comfort to someone near us who is suffer-
ing or heavy-laden. And we can mourn with those who mourn in
Colorado."