Aleppo, the Franciscan Church hit by a blast, trembled but did not fall. Father Ibrahim: “Our Holy Mother protected us”
Sunday 25th of October at 5:00 PM, the Franciscan Church in Aleppo was hit during the evening Mass.
Luckily, as Father Ibrahim explains in a letter he sent us: “The dome has held up and the bomb exploded in the outside damaging the outside part but never reached the inside”. No one died, but two people were slightly injured.
“It happened while I was starting to distribute the Holy Communion – said father Ibrahim –, then there suddenly was a moment of panic during which the earth trembled and we could see nothing”. According to the Franciscan Friar it wasn’t a coincidence: the blast arrived just while celebrating the Mass.
And Also “the fact that we are all alive and safe isn’t a coincidence either: for sure our Holy Mother Mary protected us with her mantle”.
After that the community gathered in the nearby garden to thank God and to end the Celebration with a renewed hope. “We really hope” concluded Father Ibrahim, “that all this could soon come to an end, and that soon we could speak of such episodes as something that happened in past times, without living in the fear of this happening again”.
The Franciscan Friars and the Christian communities in Syria don’t lose their hope, but they need your help.