Sydney bishop speaks of losing sight in one eye after alleged church stabbing
The Assyrian bishop who was stabbed in a terrorist act at his Sydney church earlier this month has spoken of how he has lost the use of his right eye after the attack.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel referred to the attack while he was speaking at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley during an evening mass on Sunday, almost two weeks after he was allegedly stabbed by a 16-year-old. That incident sparked a wave of tension in western Sydney and led to counter-terrorism raids last week.
Wearing an eyepatch, the 53-year-old bishop, who was hospitalised after the attack, delivered sermons in English, Arabic and Assyrian marking the Assyrian Orthodox Palm Sunday.
In his Arabic sermon, Emmanuel spoke of how he viewed his eye injury – sustained in the attack – as a sacrifice, and said it should be taken as a gesture of love to Muslims.
In his English sermon, Emmanuel echoed comments he made earlier forgiving the alleged offender.
“I will always pray for you, I will always wish you nothing but the best,” he said.
He also addressed the topic of freedom of speech, following the legal battle between the Australian government and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, about a demand to remove video of the livestream of his sermon, which showed the attack taking place.
“I say to our beloved, the Australian government, and our beloved prime minister the honourable Mr Albanese … Every human being has the right to their freedom of speech and freedom of religion, every human being.”
“The Buddhist has the right to express their belief, the Hindus have the right to express their beliefs, the Muslims have the right to express their beliefs, the atheists have the right to express their beliefs, also the Christians have the right to express their beliefs.
“For us to say that free speech is dangerous, that free speech cannot be possible in a democratic country, I’m yet to fathom this.”
“We should be able as civilised human beings, as intellectuals, we should be able to criticise, to speak and maybe at some certain times we may sound or we may come across offensive to somewhat degree but we should be able to say I should not worry for my life to be exposed to threat or to be taken away.”
“A non-Christian can criticise my faith, can attack my faith. I will say one thing. May god forgive you and may god bless you. This is a civilised way, an intellectual way, of approaching such events if or when they take place,” Emmanuel said.
