Palm Beach, Fla., Apr 30, 2009 / 05:13 am
A Florida priest who was stabbed in a confessional by a troubled woman on Saturday says he will neither “live in fear” nor allow the stabbing to prevent him from “God’s work.”
Fr. Michael Massaro had finished hearing confessions in Holy Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach on Saturday when he was stabbed twice in the back.
“I was in the confessional, putting my coat on, and felt a piercing sensation in my back left side," the priest told CNN. "I looked up and she was standing there, and I felt it again in my back. Then I realized I was stabbed and my hand was covered with blood."
"It was paralyzing, like a nightmare, and I just feel like I woke up from it. It was so quick and sudden.”
His accused attacker, 57-year-old Josephine Gatchell, had previously been arrested for damaging a religious statue at the church. After the attack, she stared at him, but said nothing.