Assaults in opposition to clergymen seem to be at the be on one?s feet around the world following the original attack through which a clergyman in Singapore was once stabbed within the face all through a Accumulation on Saturday Nov. 9., marking no less than the 3rd assault of its sort this era.
Father Christopher Lee – parish priest of St. Joseph church within the west-central Singapore patch of Bukit Timah – was once attacked via Basnayake Keith Spencer with a knife pace he was once distributing Holy Communion, reported Catholic media outlet OSV Information on Friday.
Spencer has reportedly been charged with the “offense of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by a dangerous weapon” and remanded via a courtroom in Singapore for 3 weeks.
Lee was once reported to have sustained a “laceration on his tongue,” at the side of a snip on his higher lip and at the nook of his mouth. He’s mentioned to be convalescing from his accidents.
The Father in Singapore was once now not the one priest to had been assaulted terminating Saturday, as a monastery in Spain’s Valencia patch was once additionally attacked via a middle-aged guy who yelled out “I am Jesus Christ” all through his ambush prior to he was once subdued.
3 friars on the Monastery of Santo Espíritu del Monte in Gilet, Spain were injured in the attack next the unidentified guy “wielding a blunt object, burst into the premises with a violent and provocative attitude,” in keeping with a remark via the Immaculate Thought of the Franciscan Series, the people to which the monastery belongs, reported a couple of studies.
Father Juan Antonio Llorente, 76 – considered one of 3 friars attacked within the incident – died two days next in a sanatorium next succumbing to his accidents on Monday.
Nov. 9 was once marred via one alternative assault on a clergyman in Poland, the place Father Lech Lachowicz, 72, died because of intensive mind injury following an assault one-week prior.
An axe-wielding 27-year-old – whose id rest non-transperant – attacked Lachowicz on Nov. 3 in his rectory all through an alleged theft struggle in a Szczytno parish in northeastern Poland.
The assailant has been taken into custody.
The order of assaults around the globe got here more or less one era next a clergyman was once brutally attacked within his Philadelphia house positioned around the side road from St. Maron’s Maronite Catholic Church, although he’s reported to be convalescing.
Abhor crimes in opposition to now not handiest Catholics, however Jews, Muslims and others, are rising around the globe, specifically in Europe and the U.S.
A report released Friday via the Group for Safety and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe discovered that throughout 48 countries in Europe, there have been over 4,480 incidents of abhor crimes dedicated in opposition to Jews, greater than 580 incidents focused on Christians and just about 240 reported incidents in opposition to Muslims.
Date anti-Christian and anti-Muslim incidents dropped from 2022 OSCE records, crimes in opposition to Jews grew via greater than 20% from the former yr.
Within the U.S., 2023 assaults in opposition to Catholics got here in fourth at the back of focused assaults in opposition to Sikhs, Muslims and Jews respectively – an expanding development in recent times, although the attacks have skyrocketed following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Israel and the next battle that has ensued within the Gaza Strip, which has since prolonged into Lebanon, and more and more, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The FBI reported in September that there was once a 3% decrease in total abhor crimes dedicated within the U.S. between 2023 and 2022, however in keeping with its figures, there was once additionally a 20% building up within the selection of religiously progressive abhor crimes dedicated over the terminating yr.
Greater than 2,500 incidents of religion-based hate crimes have been reported within the U.S. in 2023, a bounce from the just about 2,050 incidents reported the year prior.
Date greater than part of the religion-based abhor crimes in 2022 have been pushed via anti-Jewish partial, that proportion jumped in 2023 to account for some 67% of all spiritual abhor crimes within the U.S.
Anti-Muslim abhor crimes got here in 2nd with 236 assaults terminating yr, which accounted for not up to 9 % of all religion-based abhor crimes that yr, in keeping with the FBI.
Assaults in opposition to Sikhs accounted for five%, and assaults in opposition to Catholics accounted for just about 3%.
All assaults in opposition to Christians, as outlined via Catholic, Protestant and “other Christians,” made up over 6% of non secular abhor crimes, accounting for 176 incidents reported in 2023.
The BBC in October reported a alike development in Britain and Wales the place there was once a 5% shorten in total abhor crimes however a 25% building up in religion-based abhor crimes.
Crimes in opposition to Jews greater than doubled in 2023 the place greater than 3,280 incidents have been reported, up from simply over 1,540 incidents in 2022. Assaults in opposition to Muslims additionally grew via 13% in Britain and Wales.
