Worthy Christian News > Christian > ‘Australia Church Attack Was Terrorism’; Bishop, Priest Among Injured

‘Australia Church Attack Was Terrorism’; Bishop, Priest Among Injured

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (Worthy News) – Australian police say Monday’s stabbing attack at a Sydney church in which a bishop, priest, and churchgoers were injured during mass was a “terrorist act.”

A 16-year-old boy was detained following the violence at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church, in which Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Priest Isaac Royel were wounded. Both were expected to survive.

In addition, at least four people suffered “non-life-threatening” injuries, police said, adding that the alleged attacker was also hurt in the clash at the Assyrian Church congregation.

Australian media reported that the teen who allegedly stabbed the church leaders and individual believers had his fingers cut off.

Chris Minns, the prime minister of Australia’s New South Wales state, confirmed the information but did not clarify whether the teen severed his fingers or if it was done to him.

“The information we have is that it happened in the commission of the crime, not to him,” he added.

The troubles began during a mass that was broadcast live online. It showed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel giving a service when he was approached by an attacker at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley.

MULTIPLE TIMES STABBED

He was approached and allegedly stabbed multiple times just after 7 pm on Monday. The 16-year-old also attacked the priest and others.

The attack at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church sparked massive outrage, witnesses said. By the time police arrived, they were forced to bunker inside the building to protect the arrested teenager.

In audio obtained by Australia’s 9News television program, a responding paramedic could be heard calling for more backup to contain the crowd.

“I currently need more police to attend,” the paramedic told the operator. “The roads are blocked with hundreds of people.”

Officials later said that the crowd – hundreds of people reportedly seeking revenge – violently clashed with police, who were guarding the church where the attacker was being treated.

Two officers were reportedly injured, one with a broken jaw after he was hit with a brick and fence palings, and 10 police cars destroyed.

The violence left paramedics fearing for their safety and “holed up” inside the church for more than three hours, witnesses said.

‘DISTURBING ATTACK’

Soon after the stabbing, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened an emergency meeting of national security agencies, calling the attack “disturbing.”

“We’re a peace-loving nation… There’s no place for violent extremism.” Trying to quell further violence, he urged that people “not take the law into their own hands.”

Speaking to the media on Tuesday morning, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the bishop and priest were undergoing surgery and were “lucky to be alive.”

Authorities, who declined to release the religion of the alleged attacker, admitted later that he was known to police.

He had been released “on a good behavior bond” after being caught with a knife at a train station last November, Worthy News learned.

Minns also confirmed reports the teenager had been found with a knife at school as early as 2020.

Police said they believe staging the attack during a live-streamed service was intended to be “intimidating not only [to] the parishioners in attendance, but those parishioners who were watching online.”

FACING PERSECUTION

Monday’s attack likely reminded many believers in the area of the difficulties they had faced for their faith in Christ, Worthy News established.

The Wakeley neighborhood where the attack occurred is a hub for Sydney’s small Christian Assyrian community, many of whom fled persecution and war in Iraq and Syria.

Monday’s violence followed turbulence within the Assyrian Church. The injured bishop was suspended for disobeying canons and forming a breakaway church.

In 2021, he became a vocal opponent of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, describing lockdowns in Australia as “slavery” and arguing that vaccines were futile.

However, Bishop Emmanuel is one of the “kindest, [most] authentic, genuine human beings,” local legislator Dai Le said in published remarks.

The violence came as Sydney was still reeling from Saturday’s deadly stabbings at a shopping mall. A man stabbed six people to death at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction in the city’s eastern suburbs before he was fatally shot, police said.

Eight people, including a 9-month-old baby, were injured in the attack in Australia’s most populous city, officials confirmed. The 40-year-old suspect was known to police but not believed to have held terrorist views, police said. Six of the victims — five women and a man — and the suspect died.