(OSV News): “After two gunmen targeted Jewish beachgoers during an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah in a terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Pope Leo XIV said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by what he called a ‘horrific’ attack.”
In a December 15 telegramme, signed by Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the pope said he is praying for those recovering and those grieving “the loss of a loved one,” hoping that “those tempted to violence will undergo conversion and seek the path of peace and solidarity.”
“Enough with these forms of antisemitic violence!” Pope Leo said earlier on December 15, speaking with the groups that donated this year’s Vatican Christmas tree and Nativity scene. “We must eliminate hatred from our hearts,” he stressed.
In an overnight statement on December 14, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said that “as we follow the horrific news coming from this evening’s shooting at Bondi Beach, let us pray for those who have been killed or injured, the many who were forced to run for their lives and our emergency service workers who are right now trying to keep people safe.”
Archbishop Fisher asked that “Our Lady, Queen of Peace, intercede for all affected, and for our beloved city at this time.”
In a December 15 statement, Archbishop Fisher called for an end to an “atmosphere of antisemitism” in Australia.
“Any attack on individual Jews is an attack on the whole Jewish community and an affront to the Australian way of life,” Archbishop Fisher said, calling for unequivocal condemnation of the attack and swift justice for the victims.”
He also shared that he has Jewish heritage through his great-grandmother and, as Christians, stated, ‘an attack on the Jews is an attack on all of us.'”
“We all share in profound grief and righteous anger following last night’s terrorist attack on Bondi Beach,” the archbishop added.
“That a celebration of the Jewish feast of Hanukkah could end in at least 16 dead, including a young child, and many more injured, horrifies ordinary Australians.
“The brazen and callous disregard for human life, and the hatred of some people toward all Jews, is an unspeakable evil that must be repudiated by every Australian.”
The attack occurred in the early evening as hundreds were gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at Archer Park, a grassy area in Bondi Beach. A video circulating online showed a beachgoer tackling and disarming one of the gunmen while the other gunman fired from a nearby bridge.
At the press conference, Mal Lanyon, police commissioner for the state of New South Wales, said, “I cannot confirm there is a third offender, but I want to make sure there’s no stone left unturned.”
In an address following the shooting, Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the attack was “an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation” and that an “attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”
“Let me be clear: we will eradicate it. Amidst this vile act of violence and hate will emerge a moment of national unity, where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith,” he added.
Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, expressed his condolences to the victims and their families and called on the Australian government to act on rising violence against Jewish people in the country.
“We repeat our alerts, time and again, to the Australian government to take action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism plaguing Australian society,” Herzog said.
“Archbishop Fisher also condemned a rise in antisemitism over the past two years, saying, ‘[It has] festered, leading to intimidation, division, and the normalization of incendiary language.'”
“Opposite my own cathedral in Hyde Park, there have been weekly demonstrations where inflammatory messages have been regularly articulated, which could only have ‘turned up the temperature’ and perhaps contributed to radicalisation. This must stop.”
Representing Sydney’s Catholic community, the archbishop offered his condolences to everyone affected and announced that the archdiocese would intensify its initiatives against antisemitism through education and preaching.
