In an interview with EWTN News less than two hours after the attack, Bishop Palinuro said that the victim was “shot by a gun inside the church during the consecration while all the congregation was praying.”
“We don’t know the reason … we have to wait to understand why this tragedy happened, happened in the church during the Mass,” Palinuro said.
“We are worried about the future because if this is a sign of the religious intolerance, for our community it could be a bad sign. Let us pray.” Bishop of Istanbul, Massimiliano Palinuro, reacts to the news of a deadly shooting in a Catholic Church just before we sat down for our… pic.twitter.com/js91YDYcED
— Colm Flynn (@colmflynnire) January 28, 2024
The bishop has asked people to pray for the victims and the Catholic Church in Turkey.
“We are worried about the future because if this is a sign of the religious intolerance, for our community it could be a bad sign. Let us pray.”
There are about 25,000 Roman Catholics in living in Turkey, including migrants from Africa and the Philippines, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. State Department.
Pope Francis shared a message with the victims of the attack after he prayed the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square hours after the shooting.
“I express my closeness to the community of the church of Santa Maria Draperis in Istanbul, which suffered an armed attack during Mass, which caused one death and several injuries,” the pope said.
This is a developing story. EWTN journalists Colm Flynn and Rudolf Gehrig contributed to this report from the scene of the attack in Istanbul, Turkey.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
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