Pennsylvania faith leaders denounce violence one year after governor’s residence attack

Nearly a year after an arsonist targeted Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family in an attack that set their Harrisburg home ablaze, Shapiro and his wife, Lori, welcomed religious leaders into the same room that was set on fire during that arson, hosting a discussion on faith and how to discourage political violence in Pennsylvania and across the nation. 

Shapiro opened the discussion on Wednesday – the first night of Passover – by expressing how prayer and support from different religious communities helped his family heal in the aftermath of the attack.

“What has been so important to us and so healing to us have been the prayers, and the offerings of strength, and words of healing that we have received from people … who don’t worship like us, and who come to their religions with different practices, different approaches, but with the same throughline in our faiths, in our shared humanity,” he said. “Those prayers have truly strengthened us.”

“I’ve always been a person who prays, a prayerful person, but I never felt the strength of other people’s prayers in the way that we have throughout this process, particularly in the hours and the days and the weeks thereafter,” Shapiro added.

The interfaith roundtable, held in the State Reception Room in the Governor’s Residence, featured leaders from local religious institutions, all of whom condemned political and religious violence and called for unity across faiths. 

Bishop Timothy Senior of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg said political violence is becoming “all too commonplace” in today’s world and noted how public discourse can play a role. “I think the bar is lowered, and it begins with our public discourse so often,” he said.

Others who participated in the roundtable included Penn Township Fire Company Chaplain John Wardle; Rabbi Ariana Capptauber of Beth El Temple in Harrisburg; Reverend Marshall Mitchell of Salem Baptist Church in Abington; Navtej Grewal, president of the Harrisburg Sikh Society; Imam Idris Zahir of the Masjidullah Islamic Center in Philadelphia; and Vibheeshan Gereddy, a temple founder at Sai Mandir of Harrisburg.

Attendees at the ecumenical gathering echoed a message of unity, especially in the face of divisive rhetoric and political violence. 

“I think it’s a time of bridge-building,” said Zahir. “We have to continue to build bridges between ourselves, because those that want to divide us, those that want to continue to make the current discourse common, want to keep us apart.”

Capptauber, whom Shapiro noted led his son Reuben’s bar mitzvah, said that despite instances of religious intimidation and hatred, such events have a way of bringing people together. 

“As horrible as it is when these things happen, there’s such an opportunity to go from disgrace to praise and to build moments of solidarity and strength out of those moments,” she said. 

A year ago, an arsonist set fire to the governor’s residence in the early morning hours on April 13, just hours after Shapiro, his family and guests had finished a Passover seder. 

The perpetrator, Cody Balmer, used a hammer to break into the governor’s residence and set fire to the building with Molotov cocktails before exiting the building and fleeing the scene. He later turned himself in and told police that he would have beaten Shapiro with his hammer if he had encountered him inside the residence. Balmer pleaded guilty to charges of arson, terrorism and attempted murder in October 2025. 

Shapiro said Wednesday that he and his family are continuing to work through the trauma and aftereffects of the attack, while expressing gratitude for the support of the religious leaders who convened in Harrisburg. 

“We have had the opportunity to take stock and to work through a number of things, both as parents and as public servants,” he said. “And, as I think I’ve said to many of you individually, that’s a process that’s ongoing, and we think that today is an important part of that process.”