Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney
Photo: CNS Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher called the stabbing of Orthodox Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Fr Isaac Royel “shocking and has caused distress to many in the community”. A 16-year-old boy stabbed and injured the two men at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney on Monday night. The attacker was arrested on Tuesday, and his victims are expected to survive.
Bishop Emmanuel was born in Iraq, and is known to preach Christianity to both Muslims and Jewish people. “It does appear to be religiously motivated, but we continue our lines of investigation,” said Mike Burgess, the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), the nation’s main domestic spy agency.
In a statement, Archbishop Fisher said houses of prayer have traditionally been places of refuge and sanctuary, “and so the video footage of the attack upon a religious leader during a religious service inside a church has been especially confronting”. “The images of the violence that subsequently occurred outside the church are also confronting,” the archbishop said.