New Jersey diocese opens canonization inquiry for Catholic University student who died protecting his parents

A New Jersey diocesan commission has opened a canonization inquiry for a Catholic University of America (CUA) student who was killed by a gunman in 2020, CUA announced Oct. 27. 

In July 2020, 20-year-old Daniel Anderl and his father, Mark Anderl, were at their home in New Jersey when a gunman came to the door and opened fire, intending to attack Anderl’s mother, Esther Salas, who was a federal judge, according to My Central Jersey. 

Anderl “lunged at the shooter,” according to the outlet, and was killed. Anderl’s father was seriously injured, according to a July 2020 report by the Associated Press. Salas, who was in another part of the house at the time, was unharmed. AP News reported that authorities believed Roy Den Hollander, 72, was responsible for the attack. One day after the attack, Hollander was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

FOX 5 reported that the attacker was a “self-proclaimed men’s rights lawyer who had appeared before [Anderl’s] mother in court.” 

At the time of his death, Anderl was preparing to begin his junior year at CUA in the fall. 

Salas spoke out a month after her son’s death, recounting how the assailant opened fire and how Anderl didn’t hesitate to shield his father. 

“Daniel, being Daniel, protected his father,” Salas said, according to an August 2020 NPR report. 

Before the attack, the assailant had been able to find the family’s home address information on the internet. In November 2020, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed Daniel’s Law, which protects personal information for covered prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and judicial officers from being so accessible on government websites. The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs website states that the law “was enacted as the State of New Jersey’s response to the death of Daniel Anderl, who lost his life protecting his parents from a gunman who had come to his home intent on killing his mother, Judge Esther Salas.”

In 2017, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter establishing that the “offer of life” is a new cause for beatification and canonization. This new category requires that the offer of life was free, voluntary, and a heroic acceptance “of a certain untimely death” out of love. The person also needs to have a reputation of holiness after death and must have lived according to Christian virtues. 

After Anderl’s death, hundreds of petitions to open his cause were left at Saint Augustine of Canterbury Parish, where Anderl was baptized and received his first Communion and where his funeral was held, according to My Central Jersey. 

Father Robert Lynam, pastor of Saint Augustine of Canterbury Parish, told the outlet, “After the murder of Daniel, there was just a spirit of that he gave his life for his mother and father.”

The Metuchen diocese commission will determine the possibility of opening a sainthood cause for Anderl, according to an Oct. 27 CUA press release. Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, said in a Sept. 30 letter that he is establishing a diocesan commission for the inquiry into opening a cause for canonization as a response to parishioners’ petitions. 

“I join all of you at St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish in commending Daniel’s cause to [A]lmighty God,” Bishop Checchio said, “asking that His will be done in all things.”