Mayor-President Kip Holden sang "Let there be peace on earth" at a prayer service Tuesday in Baton Rouge, saying afterward that being the mayor of Baton Rouge "has been hell" in what has been his second public appearance since Alton Sterling's widely publicized death last week.

Holden and his wife attended the prayer service Tuesday evening at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, across town and close to five miles south of where Baton Rouge Police Department officers killed Sterling one week ago.

Other political leaders and protesters at City Hall have described Holden's public absence as a lack of leadership, but Holden said he has not been hiding and those asking where he is "have selective amnesia."

+9 Sterling protesters at BR City Hall call for Kip Holden to resign A group of some 40 people chanted in front of City Hall on Monday morning in a protest that …

"They wanna say the mayor should be here, the mayor should be there, do you think I'm gonna stand up where there are people with venom spilling out of their mouths?" Holden said after the prayer service. "...My parents gave me this thing called common sense, and I'm gonna use it."

City Hall protesters on Monday had called for his resignation and he's been criticized for not being a more active, visible presence during protests in Baton Rouge that have drawn national attention.

Holden was part of a news conference about Sterling's death last Wednesday, and has not made a public appearance since then.

But he said he considers himself "very active" and that he's been on the phone with other public officials and meeting with other groups -- like the World Changers student missionaries -- in the past few days.

He said he will lay out a platform by the end of this week for ways that Baton Rouge can move forward as a unified community after the shooting that has ripped it in half.

Citing President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday in Dallas, Holden said Baton Rouge needs less finger-pointing and more shared responsibility.

Holden also said "there are lessons to be learned on both sides" about the Baton Rouge Police Department's response to protesters in the past week. Protesters have complained about police wearing riot gear and being aggressive, but Holden said protesters should not antagonize the police.

Around 200 people were at the St. Aloysius prayer service for peace. They listened to Bible readings and sang hymns, including "We Are Called," with lyrics saying "we are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly."

Holding a hymnal, Holden joined in many of the songs and also recited the Lord's prayer alongside the other attendees.

He listened as the Rev. Randy Cuevas, the church's pastor, prayed and read aloud the accounts of the Rev. Joshua Johnson, the church's parochial vicar, who could not make the service. Cuevas, who is white, choked up in tears as he read aloud a letter about the racism that Johnson, who is black, has experienced throughout his life.

Johnson wrote that the racism of his teenage years is still ever-present in his daily life. The only black priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Johnson recalled that a police officer tailed him in a store only a few weeks ago when he was wearing work-out clothes instead of his clerical clothing.

"When I wear clerics, people respect me," Johnson wrote. "But when I wear civilian clothes to work out, my experience growing up and being judged by the color of my skin continues to this very day. This is very disappointing and this disappointment is shared by many African Americans in our country."

Johnson and Cuevas implored the attendees to turn to prayer and to listen to other people to find healing and move forward.

"White people are not the problem. Black people are not the problem. Cops are not the problem. Refugees are not the problem. The devil is the problem," Johnson wrote.

He said the devil convinces people that they know best and do not need to listen to the experiences of others, particularly those who differ from themselves.

Holden said the prayer service gave him chills. He wore a shirt that he said is a replica of the shirt Nelson Mandela wore when he was released from prison in South Africa, and Holden said he intentionally wore it because of Mandela's reputation for peace and bringing people together.

"Right now, I'm trying to bring Baton Rouge together," Holden said.