Cardinal Sandri condemns attack on Egypt’s Christians

(January 8, 2009) A leading Vatican official has expressed solidarity with Egypt’s Coptic Church, six of whose members were killed by gunmen on Wednesday as they were leaving a church in the south after Christmas Eve service. Three gunmen opened fire on a crowd of worshippers in the town of Nag Hamadi, 64 kilometres north of the famed ruins of Luxor, killing also a Muslim guard and wounding nine others. Speaking to Italian state television on Thursday, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches condemned the attack and expressed closeness with Egypt’s Coptic Church. Egypt’s MENA news agency reported the police have identified the perpetrators as outlaws with previous criminal records and have surrounded them in farm fields in southern Egypt. Thousands of Christians protested Thursday, attacking police and ambulances, over perceived discrimination against their community. Christians, mostly Orthodox Copts, account for about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Muslim population of some 80 million people. Like other Orthodox Churches Coptic Christians follow the Julian calendar and celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.