By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
On the same day the Pope’s World Day of Peace message addressed the urgent need for religious tolerance, a car bomb exploded outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria Egypt, killing 21 people and injuring 79.
RFI is reporting that the attack occurred at 12:30 a.m. local time on New Year’s Eve just as church goers were leaving Mass at the Al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church in Alexandria.
“If the bishop had finished saying Mass two minutes earlier, the bloodbath would have been worse,” Nermin Nabil, a survivor of the attack, told the AFP news agency, because there were hundreds of people still inside the building at the time.
Although no group has officially claimed responsibility for the attack, Al-Qaeda issued a threat to the Egyptian Christian community 10 days ago because of two Christians who they claim converted to Islam and who are being detained by the Coptic Church.
Police are combing the area for clues, sifting through the rubble left behind by a bomb that was packed with pieces of metal to cause the maximum amount of damage.
“Alexandria has always been a tense city because our Muslim brothers hold a lot of sway. You can feel the tension as soon as you set foot in the city,” Rafiq Greiche, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Egypt, told RFI.
“We’re afraid civil war could break out. We’ve had to put surveillance cameras around the church. We do this against our will because a church should not be a fortress. It should be an open place for everyone,” he added.
Reaction from the local Christian community has been one of anger and demands for justice. Protestors gathered outside the church shouting “where is the government” and “with our soul and our blood we will redeem the Holy Cross.”
“They are very, very angry. It’s the first time I’ve seen such anger,” said Cairo correspondent Alexandre Buccianti. “Now they are demanding that real measures be taken. For example they are demanding that the terrorists responsible for this attack must be tried in front of a military tribunal,” he said.
Coptic Christians account for 10 per cent of Egypt’s 80-million population.
The attack came on January 1 which is recognized in the Church as World Peace Day. Ironically, in this year’s message, entitled, “Religious Freedom, The Path to Peace” Pope Benedict XVI declares Christianity to be the most persecuted religion in the world and called upon world leaders to realize the vital role religious freedom plays in bringing about just and peaceful societies.
After the Angelus prayer on January 2, the Holy Father referred to “news of the serious attack against the Coptic Christian community in Alexandria, Egypt. This vile and murderous gesture, like that of placing bombs near the houses of Christians in Iraq to force them to leave, offends God and all humankind, which only yesterday prayed for peace and began a new year with hope.
“In the face of these strategies of violence, which aim against Christians but have consequences on the entire population, I pray for the victims and their relatives, and encourage ecclesial communities to persevere in the faith and in the witness of non-violence which comes to us from the Gospel. I think also of the many pastoral workers killed in various parts of the world in the course of 2010. For them too we equally express our affectionate remembrance before the Lord. Let us remain united in Christ, our hope and our peace!”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
