Stabbed Sydney bishop says he forgives attacker

An Assyrian church bishop who was stabbed during a service at his church said on Thursday he was recovering quickly, and that he had forgiven his attacker as police ramped up investigation into the riots triggered after the bishop’s stabbing.

An Assyrian church bishop who was stabbed during a service at his church said on Thursday he was recovering quickly, and that he had forgiven his attacker as police ramped up investigation into the riots triggered after the bishop’s stabbing.

Two knife attacks within three days — at a busy shopping center near Bondi beach that killed six people on Saturday and at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Sydney’s west on Monday — has shocked residents of Australia’s most populous city.

“I am doing fine, recovering very quickly ... there is no need to be worried or concerned,” Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel said in an audio message posted on social media, his first public comments since the attack. “I forgive whoever has done this act ... I will always pray for you and whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well.”

Bishop Emmanuel, who has a popular youth following on TikTok and had criticized homosexuality, Covid-19 vaccinations and Islam in his sermons, was injured in the attack, which has been deemed a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism.

A male teenager has been arrested in the attack on the bishop and is in the hospital under police guard.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/stabbed-sydney-bishop-says-forgives-attacker-rcna148335

---