For the second time this year, a Catholic priest has been stabbed in Turkey. This time the victim survived, but the incident is still troubling.

A French missionary priest survived a knife attack on July 1, but Church leaders in Turkey are worried by a rising tide of anti-Christian violence in the months leading up to a visit by Pope Benedict XVI

Father Pierre Brunissen was badly wounded when he was stabbed twice by a man who was prompted taken into police custody. Authorities said that the priest's assailant appeared mentally unbalanced.

The AsiaNews service reports, however, that Father Brunissen had received a number of threats in recent weeks, and the parish church he served in the town of Samsun had been vandalized. The violence and intimidation had increased, AsiaNews said, after the murder of an Italian missionary, Father Andrea Santoro, in the Turkish town of Trabzon, in February. The young man charged with killing Father Santoro, who was also described as unbalanced, shouted an Islamic slogan after shooting the priest.

Given the threats made against the priest in recent weeks, I doubt the official explanation.

Posted by: Greg at 02:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 196 words, total size 1 kb.