Sunday Bombing of St. Francis' Church
We publish Fr. Ibrahim Alsabagh's letter on the terrorist attack at the Church of St. Francis, Aleppo.Dearest Brothers and Sisters,
After multiple failed attempts to attack our Church of St. Francis, the Latin Cathedral of Aleppo of Azizieh, a group of jihadists succeeded this afternoon in their intention to strike the dome of the Church during the parish mass of 5:00 pm afternoon. This happened while we were beginning to distribute Holy Communion. We have to thank the Lord because the dome withstood the blast from outside and it did not break through to the Church. There was a moment of real panic in which the earth shook for a while and the only thing you could see was the and the pieces of plaster falling around us.
Notwithstanding all of this, thanks to God, there were only two people who were slightly wounded. We all exited the Church quickly toward the garden and thanked the Lord together for letting us escape the danger. We went on with the distribution of communion and ended the Mass with a solemn blessing. We can’t stop praising and thanking the Lord for not letting there be any deaths.
The attempt to destroy the Dome during parish Mass on Sunday afternoon when the Church was full of faithful was not a pure coincidence. Moreover the fact that all of us were saved is not by chance: we were in fact, protected under the mantle of our heavenly mother Mary.
We hope that this chaos comes to an end and we hope to soon speak of these facts as things of the past without fear that they might happen again at any moment.
Peace and blessing!
Father Ibrahim
Update: We found out that there were six people who were slightly wounded and that there was one person who is conscious but is in critical condition and is in the hospital being examined by the doctors. With regard to the dynamic of the attack, we now know that it was a gas bomb that someone had thrown. After it damaged the dome, it rolled on to the roof of the Church that was covered with terra cotta tiles where it exploded. The damage to the roof is enormous and the windows of the Church were all blown out.