A communique following the horrific suicidal attack against a Church in Syria, 22 June 2025.

Together with the Melkite Catholic Clergy and Faithful of our Holy Eparchy, I join with all people of goodwill throughout the world who have expressed their complete distress at the carnage wrought by individuals at the Antiochian Greek-Orthodox Church of Saint Elias the Prophet in Damascus. In this appalling act we see full well that the perpetrators of this atrocity fear neither God nor men.

Of course, we expect the customary, rambling self-justification, however, we say unequivocally that anyone who commits murder whilst invoking the Name of God is guilty of blasphemy, and to do so whilst the victims were gathered in a holy place and at prayer is the added sin of sacrilege.

It is especially sad that Damascus, a focus of culture and learning, is now fast becoming unsafe even for those who daily offer “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for all people, for all who are in high positions, that (they) may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (see 1Tim2:1-2)

We cannot but urge the government of Syria and all the civil authorities throughout the country to restore and encourage the communal harmony that was once a much-lauded feature of national life.

The Clergy and Faithful of our Holy Eparchy hasten to extend their profound condolences to His Beatitude Patriarch John X and all those who are gathered around the Apostolic Throne of Antioch and All the East. May His Beatitude, who in recent years experienced the bitter reality of persecution, be strengthened from Above and preserved unto many years.

To our beloved Brothers and Sisters in Damascus, Orthodox and Catholic, of whatever Holy Church and Community you belong, with us you constitute the Household of the Faith. Although we are far away from the City wherein St Paul was enlightened, we hold you in constant prayerful remembrance.

It is to Tertullian, the African Christian lawyer, that is credited the maxim, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” May the laurel-crowned victims of this barbaric cruelty rest with the Righteous, may they be ever remembered amongst the New Martyrs of our age; may the bereaved be enfolded in the Divine Consolation; and for those who have been injured may there be a full and speedy recovery.

It is our fervent prayer that in the midst of all this, our Christian Brethren in Damascus and throughout Syria, will be granted the strength to make their own the words of the Apostle Paul,

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” (2 Cor 4:8-9)

✠Robert Rabbat, DD

Bishop of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy

of Australia, New Zealand, and All Oceania.