The front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross filled with expectant mothers, palms pressed to bellies. They held the hands of their children and looped arms with their husbands and partners as Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley blessed their unborn babies, at a Sunday Mass offered in solidarity with the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut.

In his homily, O’Malley likened the killings at Sandy Hook to the biblical stories of the slaughter of innocents in Bethlehem and in Egypt, and called for the banning of assault rifles and improved care for the mentally ill.