EWTN News, Dec 14, 2025 / 07:02 am
Catholic leaders in Australia have responded with prayer and condemnation of antisemitism following what police described as a terrorist attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday that left 12 people dead and 29 others injured.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney called for prayer and the intercession of the Virgin Mary in the immediate aftermath of the Dec. 14 shooting, which authorities said included one of the alleged gunmen among the dead.
“As we follow the horrific news coming from this evening’s shooting at Bondi Beach, let us pray for those who have been killed or injured,” Fisher said in a statement released shortly after the attack. “May Our Lady, Queen of Peace, intercede for all affected, and for our beloved city at this time.”
The archbishop also offered prayers for the “many who were forced to run for their lives” and for emergency service workers responding at the scene.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said the violence had “shaken Australians to the core” and condemned what he described as “the scourge of antisemitism.”
‘Dark and destructive stain’
“The twisted motives behind those who perpetrated these terrible acts are now clearly linked with the scourge of antisemitism,” Costelloe said in a Dec. 14 statement. “This is a shocking and deeply distressing reality which calls into question our own understanding of ourselves as Australians.”
He warned that “blind prejudice and hatred points to a dark and destructive stain in our society which threatens not just our Jewish brothers and sisters but, in fact, all of us.”
“We must rediscover our conviction that nothing can ever justify this destructive violence,” he said, urging Australians to ensure that the “justifiable anger we feel does not breed even more violence and hatred.”
The attack occurred Sunday evening during the “Chanukah by the Sea” event on the first night of Hanukkah. Authorities said two gunmen opened fire on the Jewish community gathering shortly after sunset. One alleged shooter was killed at the scene, while a second was taken into custody. Police said they were investigating whether a third person may have been involved.
‘Genuine hero’ praised
Costelloe praised what he described as the “remarkable courage of the police and other first responders, and individual acts of bravery as people sought to protect each other.”
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns highlighted the actions of a bystander who wrestled one of the gunmen to the ground and removed his shotgun, calling him a “genuine hero” who helped save lives, according to local media reports.
Explosives found at scene
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said authorities had found improvised explosive devices in a vehicle linked to the deceased attacker. He declared the shooting a terrorist incident, citing the timing on the first night of Hanukkah, the nature of the weapons used, and the discovery of the explosives. A bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene.
Among the 29 people hospitalized were two police officers who were injured while responding to the attack, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the shooting as a “dark moment for our nation,” calling it a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians” and an “act of evil.”
“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian,” Albanese said.
Costelloe concluded by urging unity and peace. “We join with all those who condemn such terrible violence and plead with all Australians to reject any impulse towards hatred and violence and instead to recommit ourselves to being peacemakers in our families, amongst our friends and in our wider society,” he said.
Last update on Dec. 14 at 7:48 a.m. ET with further details.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
I understand that the older gunman had an Australian firearms license and owned 6 guns. The vetting process for this license obviously does not work.
Maybe the vetting process that allowed Sajid and Naveed Akram into Australia failed.
Clearly Australia’s strict gun laws are worthless at preventing gun violence. The only thing they have achieved is to disarm law abiding citizens.
At least the Australians didn’t pussyfoot around trying to discern the motive.
The vetting process for immigrants doesn’t work. It would if Democrats used it. They don’t because they’re the Party of Mayhem..
To name the shooters would be to identify their motive. That is why CNA, like the rest of the media, remains silent on that point. Jews, for the most part, push the most liberal immigration policies imaginable for Western nations, anyway. Some of their pets occasionally bite the hand that feeds them. I guess it’s the price that must paid to attain the more important goal.
Jews represent perhaps 0.4% of the Australian population & Australia has seen the highest number of anti Semitic incidents worldwide since Oct. 7th. Jews do not encourage harm to themselves. Iran is doing that by funding extremist propaganda & spreading anti Semitic misinformation online.
Oh, there is evidence linking this attack to Iran? You should present it to Bibi so he can order Trump to nuke the country. Otherwise, stop telling wild and dangerous lies.
It’s common knowledge about Iran, Mr. Tony. But we don’t have enough info yet about this most recent incident.
JULY 31, 2025 13:00
“Iran is “directly engaging criminal networks abroad to carry out attacks against Jewish targets and make Jews in Europe unsafe,” according to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The July report evaluated Iran’s continued violations of freedom of religion or belief both domestically and abroad. It paid particular attention to the government’s recent targeting of religious minorities – including Baha’is, Jews, Christians, Sunnis, and various non-Muslim minority groups – in the wake of a June 2025 military escalation.
According to the report, Iran continues to promote and instigate antisemitism abroad, both via criminal networks and online and through social media…”
Jerusalem Post
I have a suggestion: Remove Muslims from Western countries. That will end Islamic terrorism in places they don’t belong. Believe or not, there are far more Gentile victims of Islamic terrorism. Our lives matter too.
And no, the report you cite doesn’t prove Iran had anything to do with the Bondi attack or any other form that matter.
Always good when Fox News chimes in.
Jewish politicians, billionaires, journalists, academics, lawyers and activists have been the most energetic proponents of The Great Replacement throughout the West. In that important sense, they do bear responsibility for the entirely predictable policies they help enact. They openly brag about it, but the rest of us are not allowed to notice.
Be careful. There are people who have no idea about Emanuel Celler and his fifty year reign of error, or Larry Fink’s open declaration that force would have to be used to replace white men in corporate America-with of course his job as head Satan Rock excepted.
The ultimate replacement is going on in Ukraine. Now the Fink, Kushner, and Witkoff are busy making decisions about this Christian country.
When the war ends, Zelensky and his cronies will flee for Tel Aviv with their stolen billions. Fink and his buddies then plan to bring in the Africans and Middle Easterners to replace all the Ukrainian men killed in the fighting. Maybe Netanyahu will send all the Palestinians he hasn’t killed from Gaza and the West Bank there.
Christians do NOT worship the same God as Islamists. If you don’t believe me just ask 100 random Islamists themselves. If you don’t know where to find 100 Islamists, take a trip to Minnesota.
No need to go to Minnesota. Any Costco on Saturday will do.
Hopefully, amidst all the mindlessly murderous anti-Jew atrocities and mindlessly murderous anti-Moslem atrocities, we Catholics and other Christians will see more clearly the uniquely universal value of the central message of our faith: “Jesus saves!”
Here is a video clip of a brilliant Moslem lady who found that truth –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoX0dqfN5Kk
Here is a video clip of an Israeli Jewish man who found that truth –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE7VRivMzy4
Our message to the world – “In Christ alone can we be united in peace.”
I will note that when the Assumption school shooting occurred this past August, and when the Covenant School shooting was perpetrated in August 2023, these events were framed by the media as a “school shootings”, not Anti-Catholic or anti-Christian terrorism and nobody would DARE attempt to link them as “transgender terrorists”.
Here of course, there is no problem inferring the perpetrators, the motives, the targets or the both events as part of a pattern.
But don’t you think it’s interesting that we have to infer here? I’ve been looking at different sources to find out about the shooters, but most media outlets are silent about their backgrounds and motives.