Image: Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was stabbed while delivering a mass in a Wakeley church on April 15
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was stabbed two weeks ago in an alleged terrorist attack, returned to the pulpit on Sunday night to deliver his first mass since the attack.
Wearing a white medical eye patch after recovering in hospital from his wounds, the bishop delivered a 52-minute sermon to the congregation at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.
The bishop was welcomed with cheers and a standing ovation by the congregation, and spent several minutes thanking worshippers, mayors, and church leaders.
He also said he was praying for his attacker, a 16-year-old boy who has since been charged with a Commonwealth terror offence.
“This young man who did this act almost two weeks ago, I say to you my dear, ‘You are my son, and you will always be my son’,” the bishop said.
The stabbing attack on April 15, which was live streamed and widely circulated on social media, was followed by a riot outside the church. Police have since charged 10 people for their alleged participation in the riot, which saw 20 police officers injured and almost 100 police vehicles damaged.
Seven teenagers aged between 14 and 17 have also been arrested as part of a major counter-terrorism investigation launched after the attack. Police said the suspects were believed to share a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology” and said it was “likely” they were plotting an attack.
Free speech and censorship
Later in the sermon, the bishop addressed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his comments about free speech and censorship.
“For us to say that free speech is dangerous, that free speech cannot be possible in a democratic country … I’m yet to fathom this,” he said.
“For us to say that because of this freedom of speech it is causing dramas and dilemmas therefore everything should be censored then where is democracy, where is humanity, where is integrity?”
The prime minister and the government’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant have called on X, owned by Elon Musk, to remove videos of the livestreamed stabbing.
Grant believes the presence and circulation of the clip could be used to radicalise, while Albanese has accused Musk of being an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law”.
Musk refused to comply with court orders to remove the violent footage from all countries.
Posting to X, Musk said the company was concerned that if “ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”
The bishop has sided with the billionaire, reportedly providing X with an affidavit in support of the content remaining online ahead of the Federal Court hearing on May 10.
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