From the pulpit on Sunday, Father Joe Whalen exhorted his parishioners to avoid the kind of extreme partisanship and hate that appeared to be behind the killing of one of the church's own, Democratic Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman.

Even as the national political discourse has grown hyperpartisan in recent years, Minnesota had kept a foothold on its own traditions.

From the pulpit on Sunday, Father Joe Whalen urged his parishioners to avoid the extreme partisanship and hatred that appeared to be behind the killing