Terrorism
“We express our solidarity with the Church of France. We pray for all the victims” of the attacks and “present our condolences to their families and the people of France”, reads a statement from the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, issued after the attack on the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, France, in which an 84-year-old priest, Fr. Jacques Hamel, was brutally murdered. “In these occasions, we believers have to pray to the Almighty to keep all the peoples united in order to cooperate together for the end of all kinds of terrorism and inspire world leaders to act wisely and decisively to uproot terrorism and its causes in all the regions that are suffering from this plague”, the Ordinaries wrote. “From the Holy Land, which continues to suffer from violence and instability, we raise our voices to urge an end to the use of violence in the name of religion, and to use religion, instead, as a path to promote mutual respect and understanding amongst all nations”. “The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries and all the churches in the Holy Land present their condolences to the Church and the people of France, assuring them of our prayers for peace in their country, in ours, and worldwide”.
