CHICAGO (CNS) -- As Chicago surpassed New York and Los Angeles for the number of murders this year, Catholics in the city attended an annual memorial Mass for victims of violence at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.

Many of those in attendance lost loved ones a few years ago but the pain is still fresh.

Six years after her son was killed, Lucida Montelongo struggles with the loss every day.

"I couldn't cry for the first two years," she recalled. "At first, I wanted to kill. Anger is normal. It's mixed emotions. But as time passes by, your emotions change," said Montelongo after the Oct. 27 memorial Mass for victims of violence.

After an assailant shot 26-year-old Arthur Montelongo to death in 2002, Lucida Montelongo lost interest in talking to people and performing the routines of daily life, like running a household. With time, the intensity of the emotions diminished, she said. But Montelongo, her husband and her four remaining children still wrestle through their grief with tears, a lack of joy in life and what she describes as feeling "emotionally lost."

To cope, she attends monthly healing circles put on by the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, a ministry for offenders, at-risk youths and people who have lost loved ones to violence.

A few days before Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of Chicago came to Immaculate Heart of Mary to celebrate the annual memorial Mass, the Chicago Sun-Times newspapers reported the city's 2008 murder toll had reached 426 as of Oct. 24, compared with 417 in New York and 302 in Los Angeles.

Before the Mass began, volunteers invited Massgoers to write the names of loved ones lost to violence on 10-inch-tall white wooden crosses.

Precious Blood Father David Kelly, one of the priests who founded the ministry, welcomed participants and said, "The violence has not stopped, but we work for peace."

Bishop Garcia-Siller delivered his homily in Spanish and English. He expressed worry that the nation's economic instability means more violence will occur. "But we can let Jesus find an answer to it," he said. "Jesus was able to find through his death an answer to life and give us hope, because he knew we would face many moments of death."

More than 200 people listened as he acknowledged his own angry human reaction when he hears about acts of violence.

"We get tired and angry -- we become like the offenders -- filled with violence," he said. "I can feel it in myself when I hear these stories, filled with feelings that are not from God. And I have to turn back to God.

"This violence is taking our love, so let us love one another more. Let us pray more and listen more," he said.

After the homily, two young women slowly carried a large wooden cross, about 5 feet high, up the center aisle of the church and positioned it on a black fabric screen placed to one side of the sanctuary. Congregants filed up to the screen and affixed the small white crosses bearing the names of their lost ones. Many also placed photos of the deceased on display shelves. Some shed tears and were comforted by relatives; others remained solemn.

After the Mass, Bishop Garcia-Siller praised Precious Blood Ministry's work with survivors, explaining, "We need to listen with loving care to people's stories, and not to judge who was right and who was wrong." Such caring is very healing for those who have suffered violent loss, he said.

Earlier in October, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia led a Holy Hour for peace in his city at Christ the King Church in northeast Philadelphia. At the cardinal's urging, similar prayer services took place in other churches throughout the archdiocese.

The cardinal chose to spend the hour at Christ the King because it was the home parish of police Sgt. Patrick McDonald, whose funeral Mass he had celebrated there in September.

He was joined by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter along with hundreds of people on their knees "expressing our profound dependency on God," Cardinal Rigali said. "What cannot be accomplished by our own power, God can accomplish by his. He can build up a city of peace and justice. The power of prayer opens hearts and doors to peace in our city. This has been the prayer and aspiration of our hearts this evening."

Hundreds more joined the cardinal spiritually at 105 parishes across the city, where Catholic churches were opened to remember McDonald and four other police officers killed in Philadelphia in the past two years.

The faithful also remembered the officers' families and prayed for the safety of all police officers and firefighters "who offer up so much for our safety and tranquillity," the cardinal said.

Contributing to this story was Nadia Maria Smith in Philadelphia.

© 2008 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops