The Maltese Apostolic Vicar of Benghazi in Libya was forced to remain in Tripoli due to the recent attacks on Western and Christian establishments over the publication of satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.
Mgr Sylvester Carmel Magro belongs to the Franciscan Minors who are responsible for convents in the two Libyan cities. The priests had to be evacuated after a mob attacked and set alight the Maria Immacolata church in Benghazi and neighbouring buildings.
Mgr Magro said hundreds of young people attacked the Italian Consulate, setting it on fire and reducing it to a heap of rubble. Eleven people died and dozens were injured in the incident on February 17. The mob was reacting to an Italian minister, Roberto Calderoli, who wore a T-shirt depicting the cartoons in question.
During the funeral the following day, the angry crowd attacked the courts and a police station. Later on youngsters tried to set fire to the cathedral's main door but the three friars inside managed to extinguish the fire with the help of neighbours.
Mgr Magro said that as a result, the police stood guard at the church entrance. "Everything appeared to have returned to normal and the police themselves assured the friars there was nothing to fear."
"On the following day, February 18, two priests went out as usual to celebrate Mass at the homes of the nuns who work in the city's health centres: the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Ivrea, consisting of two Italian communities with three Tanzanian sisters; and the Polish Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
"I was out of the country but as soon as I was informed about the critical situation, I immediately returned to Tripoli from where I took another flight to Benghazi. However, upon arrival I was not allowed to reach the church. Security and protocol officials met me at the airport and took me to a safe place together with officials from the Italian Consulate. On the evening of the same day the whole group were evacuated to Tripoli," he said.
The Bishop was met by Fr Daniel Farrugia and Malta's ambassador to Libya, Joseph Cassar who escorted him to St Francis cathedral.
"That same evening the church and the friars' house in Benghazi were set alight. Hundreds of youngsters had surrounded the building and forced open the doors of the garage and the church. Once inside the building they set ablaze the liturgical vestments; smashed all cabinets and ransacked the place.
"The same fate befell the house of the friars and the bishop's apartment. All the rooms were broken into, ransacked, looted and set ablaze," he said.
The two friars who stayed inside, seeing the police were unable to control the situation, sought shelter in a small garage next to the church garden. "From their hiding place they could follow what was happening in the cathedral through the fissures in the door, all the time invoking the mercy of God in their terror," Mgr Magro said.
"After three endless hours, when everyone had left, leaving behind devastation and ashes, they left their hiding place. In the meantime, the 12 sisters of the three Communities of Benghazi, together with three sisters of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Child Jesus of El Merj and the two priests were accommodated at the Uzu Hotel just outside Benghazi, where they anxiously waited for the security police to evacuate them to Tripoli."
The Maria Immacolata church dates back to 1858 but had to be closed with the advent of the 1969 Revolution. Later in 1976, it was donated to the Catholic community of Benghazi, as a sequel to the Islamo-Christian Congress held in Tripoli earlier that year.
After much needed restoration work the small church was re-opened for worship on December 8, 1977. Twenty years later, in 1997, Mgr Magro celebrated the inauguration of his ministry in this church. This came about as a result of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Libya and the Holy See.