Mar Mari Emmanuel, an Orthodox Bishop has been stabbed and three people, including a priest, have been injured while hearing Mass in a church in Sydney (Australia) on 15 April, Monday.
A man broke in at 7:10 p.m. (local time) with a knife into the Christ The Good Shepherd Church, located west of the Australian capital while Mass was being celebrated.
The ceremony was being broadcast live and in the video of the attack, you can see how the man approaches the altar and stabs the bishop up to six times, knocking down the wooden altar as he lunges at the prelate.
Seeing what was happening, the faithful did not hesitate to come to their aid and three of them were injured. Among the injured is a 50-year-old man who had to be taken to hospital in serious condition.
Doctors treated the injured at the scene. Police urged the community to avoid the area and assured that the injured had “non-life-threatening injuries.”
The Police have been able to arrest the person responsible for the attack, about whom further information has not yet been offered, although they claim that he is collaborating with the police.
According to a statement released through the parish’s Facebook, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the injured priest, Fr. Isaac Royel, have been taken to the hospital and their condition is stable.
They invite the faithful to pray for his recovery and also urge them to do so for the perpetrator since it is “the wish of the bishop and the priest.”
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who has more than ten thousand followers on his social networks, is a member of the Ancient Church of the East and the current leader of the Christ Good Shepherd church. He was ordained a priest in 2009 and a bishop in 2011. For his part, Father Isaac Royel was ordained in 2016.