CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2020 / 14:00 pm
A Vatican archbishop expressed "grave concern" Thursday at the rise in attacks on believers praying in places of worship.
In a Dec. 3 address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher said that "the Holy See wishes to express its grave concern for the rising number of terrorist attacks, hate crimes and other manifestations of intolerance targeting persons, places of worship, cemeteries and religious sites across the OSCE area and beyond."
"The fact that many of these acts of violence have been perpetrated against believers when they gather to pray in their places of worship make them particularly heinous: havens of peace and serenity quickly become execution chambers, as defenseless children, women and men lose their lives simply for gathering to practice their religion," he said.
Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, made the comments at a virtual meeting of the OSCE held in the Albanian capital, Tirana.