Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna yesterday urged the Maltese not to let Islamic State win by “filling our hearts with fear and hate”, after they brutally murdered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya earlier is week.
“We cannot allow them to win the battle over our hearts, to fill them with fear and hate. This would mean that they have won and we cannot allow it,” Mgr Scicluna said during his Ash Wednesday homily in the Żejtun parish church. He was accompanied by the head of the Coptic Church in Malta, Abouna Boulus Elsourainy, who was invited to join Mgr Scicluna in prayer.
The mass murder, which provoked a volley of Egyptian air strikes on the jihadist group’s Libyan stronghold of Derna, realised long-held fears of militants reaching the Mediterranean coast.
Reading a prayer in Maltese, Fr Elsourainy thanked the Maltese for their kindness and solidarity and asked them to pray for the families of those who had lost loved ones in the fight against terror. He asked the Maltese to pray for those Copts who were still being held captive in Libya, and to ask God for their safe release.
He referred to the Christian martyr St Stephen, who shouted out “Lord, do not hold his sin against them”, as he was stoned to death.
Picking up on this, Mgr Scicluna reiterated that those who had been killed in Libya were “martyrs for Christ”, as they had been killed “simply because they were Christian”. This, he said, was particularly shocking as one did not expect to speak of martyrs in contemporary society – these belonged only in history books.
Despite this, revenge was not the solution, he said.
He called on the Maltese to follow the example of forgiveness set by Christ during his suffering and crucifixion.
Describing his anguish at the news of the 21 deaths, he said the Mediterranean was running red with the blood of the murdered Christians.
“Their blood is mixing with that of the countless migrants who have lost their lives fleeing similar anguish.”
The Mass was preceded by a pilgrimage, which had to be abandoned early after a gentle pitter patter of rain turned into a heavy deluge.