‘Many tears’ & fear in N.Y.
MANY OF New York’s Coptic Christians attended Palm Sunday services with tears in their eyes following suicide bomb attacks that killed at least 44 people in two Egyptian churches.
At St. Mary and St. Antonios Coptic Orthodox Church in Queens, churchgoers were visibly upset. One woman broke into tears as she entered the lobby. Others said they’d been unable to reach relatives in Egypt.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the blasts.
Details of the bombings at churches continued to emerge as the service in Ridgewood got underway. Ayman Aziz, 47, volunteered to serve as a lookout for suspicious people.
“Many people are coming in tears,” he said. “We are targets because we are Christians. But we are not going to stay home. We are going to come to church.
“It’s very sad for everyone. We are not going to hide. We accept people here with an open heart,” added Aziz, a father of two.
Some New York Copts said they had been unable to reach relatives in Egypt. Others said they feared extremists would lash out in the city, just as they had in the Arab world’s most populous nation.
St. Mary and St. Antonios’ deacon, Ramun Morgan, said he wanted to bring his parents to New York from Egypt. He had yet to speak with them. “I wish to bring them here,” he said.
“Today is a holy day. You see their faces. They are not happy. This is why they (terrorists) did it. They know what they are doing. They wanted to hurt people.”
Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, heralds the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and marks the last week of his earthly life.
An NYPD spokesman said police had been dispatched to Coptic and Catholic churches.
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Timothy Cardinal Dolan urged parishioners to keep Egypt’s Coptic Christians in their prayers.
He noted Catholic and Coptic worshippers in New York shared a particular bond: The Church of Our Lady of Peace on E. 62nd St. was recently sold to the Egyptian Christian Coptic Orthodox Church with the Pope’s blessing.
St. Mary and St. Antonios congregant Farid Shaker, 40, said the attacks made him fear for his three girls. But he said the bloodshed only strengthened the faith.
The head priest, Antonios Makaryus, 76, said he’d comforted people all morning who had lost loved ones. “We broke the news to the congregation, telling them that our mother church in Egypt is still under persecution. We thought that the time of persecution had ended, but apparently it has not ended,” Makaryus said. “We are living in a new era of martyrdom. We all have family in Egypt. Knowing this, we put our trust in the Lord.” Steven Girgis, 5, left the service holding palm leaves. As adults talked about the attacks, he hugged his sister, Merola (inset), 4, and glanced up at his dad, Ibrahim Girgis. “Is this going to happen here?” Steven asked. “No, no,” his father replied as he patted his son on the head.