|
|
|
|
News from the Caribbean as of
|
Head of St Lucia’s Roman Catholic Church survives assassination attempt
Monday, April 17, 2006
by Shervon Alfred
Caribbean Net News St Lucia Correspondent
Email: shervon@caribbeannetnews.com
CASTRIES, St Lucia: The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Saint Lucia narrowly escaped death last Wednesday, when he was attacked by a knife-wielding man.
The incident has sent shockwaves through the local Catholic community.
Archbishop Kelvin Felix, 73, had moments earlier ended a mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the capital, Castries.
Police say the Archbishop was speaking to someone outside the church, when a man walked up to his back and attempted to slash his throat with a knife.
The Roman Catholic priest is reported to have fallen to the ground and the attacker fled the scene.
The Archbishop’s life was saved by a clerical collar which he was wearing at the time.
“It’s a two-layered collar, so the knife cut the first layer and it could not get to the throat because of the second layer. It is really a very thick plastic collar and it took quite a bit of sawing to cut that because it’s very thick,” said Catholic Church Spokesman, Monsignor Patrick Anthony.
Internal Security Minister Calixte George denounced the attack as reprehensible and abhorrent. At a press conference Thursday, George announced that security would be increased at all ceremonies during the Easter weekend.
On December 31, 2000 the same Catholic Cathedral was the scene of another brutal attack. Two machete-wielding men stormed the Cathedral during mass and doused the worshippers with gasoline before setting them ablaze. Others worshippers were hacked with cutlasses. The attack left two people dead and at least a dozen injured.
The perpetrators - Kim John and Francis Phillip - have since been convicted of the brutal crime and are currently on death row.
Police have arrested the Archbishop’s attacker but are not releasing his identity until he is formally charged.
However they say he is a 28 year old resident of Rock Hall – a small community just a stone’s throw away from where John and Francis lived. Authorities are not commenting on whether there may be links between the two cases.
Back...
Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
 Printable version
|
|
