Church windows are weak point in security of Catholic parishes, experts say

 

National Catholic Register, Sep 3, 2025 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

Should Catholic churches make it harder to shoot through windows?

That question has taken on urgency this past week, after a gunman fired dozens of bullets through narrow stained-glass windows during an all-school daily Mass at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, killing two schoolchildren and wounding at least 21 other people, including pupils and elderly.

Security experts who spoke with the Register said windows are an obvious vulnerability for many churches, and they suggested that Church officials should pay more attention to making them more secure.

“Your glass is the weakest point,” said Joe Bockheim, account manager of West Michigan Glass Coatings, a company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that provides enhanced security measures for windows for schools and churches, among other clients.

Thomas Mynsberge, a former member of the Michigan State Police’s SWAT team and a security consultant, told the Register he often recommends that clients install break-proof films on their windows, some of which can prevent a bullet shot by a handgun from penetrating.

That’s not the case for high-velocity rifles, such as the one the shooter used in Minneapolis.

“But what it would do is maybe slow the speed down considerably and maybe make it less lethal,” said Mynsberge, founder and president of Critical Incident Management, Inc., of Grand Haven, Michigan.

Film vs. thicker stuff

As deadly as the mass shooting last Wednesday was, it could have been worse.

That’s because the shooter was unable to get into the church, authorities said.

“Annunciation Church had a practice that once Mass began, they locked the doors of the church. This incident occurred shortly after the Mass was beginning. So there’s no question that the fact that the doors were locked likely saved additional lives,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a press conference last Thursday.

“What’s particularly heinous and cowardly about this is these children were slaughtered by a shooter who could not see them. He was standing outside of the building firing through very narrow church windows on the level where they would line up with the pews,” O’Hara said. “And even ultimately when he got to the rear of the church, where there’s an entryway that’s basically all glass, and fired out the window where a person could walk it, ultimately did not walk in.”

It’s not clear whether Annunciation Church had strengthened its windows.

Security film for glass windows is typically made of polyethylene terephthalate polyester, although a newer version made of urethane has recently come on the market, said David Carson, chief operating officer of Michigan Glass Coatings, of Auburn Hills, which counts schools and churches among its clients.

The industry standard width for security film is 8 mills — meaning 8 one-thousandths of an inch — although thicker films are available, as is layering of films to provide more protection, Bockheim of West Michigan Glass Coatings told the Register.

The film was originally designed to keep glass from shattering upon impact from a sledgehammer or crowbar, in order to make it more difficult for an intruder to gain quick entry. Such film may slow down the velocity of a bullet, depending on its thickness and layers, and in some cases even prevent a bullet from getting to the other side, Bockheim said.

Yet stopping a bullet fired by a high-velocity rifle with confidence requires 1-inch-thick polycarbonate installed either inside or outside of existing glass windows and attached to the frame.

“The bullets just stick in it, almost like they’re gel,” Carson said.

“Film’s going to give you time. Film’s going to send a message that we’re not going to let you walk in,” Carson said. “And bullet-resistant glass is going to stop the bullets.”

The cost difference is sharp.

Both companies told the Register that installing film over glass typically costs about $20 to $25 a square foot, though the per-unit cost is usually less with larger jobs and more with smaller jobs.

As an example, Bockheim said his company provided security film for eight mostly glass doors and eight sidelights, which are doors that have smaller glass windows, for a Catholic church in Grand Rapids at a cost of about $2,000 to $2,500.

But the 1-inch polycarbonate can cost 15 to 18 times as much as the much thinner films, Bockheim said.

And even then, it may not provide as much security as needed.

“If the money’s there, this is the most cost-effective way to keep bullets from going through glass,” Bockheim said. “But there’s a whole security envelope that needs to be considered. And honestly — and I hate to say it — having somebody armed is going to be just as important as strengthening glass.”

Brian Eaton, an Arizona police officer and founder of Porters of St. Joseph, a Catholic men’s apostolate that trains ushers at 17 parishes in the state to provide security during Mass, noted that strengthening windows can be expensive, but he said every bit helps.

“If they can’t afford the bullet-proof then the break-proof is a good alternative,” Eaton told the Register by text. “Prevents bad guy from getting in, even if he can shoot through it.”

Taking needed steps

Security experts say they understand that many churches operate on thin budgets.

“I think what you have to consider most of the time is what is feasible — get the safety as high as you can as quick as you can without changing everything around you,” Carson said.

Even so, Carson, a former high-school physics teacher, said responsible decision-makers need to do more than they are doing now.

“We know who’s at risk. We need to put something toward it. It’s not being taken seriously enough,” Carson said. “There are ways to stop intruders. We’re not taking all those steps.”

Bockheim, a lifelong Catholic who attended local Catholic schools, lamented the condition of American society that makes discussions such as this one necessary.

Bockheim said, “Business aside, I want us to fix our people, not our windows.”

This article was originally published in the National Catholic Register, CNA’s news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.