Pope Francis offered prayers following the bombing at a Mass inside the Mindanao State University (MSU) gymnasium in Marawi, which the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) claimed to have masterminded, on Sunday, Dec. 3.
“I wish to assure my prayer for the victims of the attack that occurred this morning in the Philippines, where a bomb exploded during Mass,” Francis said in a tweet on X, formerly Twitter. “I am close to the families and the people of Mindanao, who have already suffered so much.”
I wish to assure my prayer for the victims of the attack that occurred this morning in the Philippines, where a bomb exploded during Mass. I am close to the families and the people of Mindanao, who have already suffered so much.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) December 3, 2023
An improvised explosive detonated at a morning religious service that left at least four people dead and 50 injured, according to Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, regional director of the Police Regional Office of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
BARMM security officials claimed that the bombing was a retaliatory attack from Islamist militant groups after the military conducted operations against them in recent days.
Gen. Romero Brawner Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, saw a possible link between Sunday’s bombing and the explosion during Mass at Jolo Cathedral in January 2019, which occurred days before the plebiscite on the creation of the new Bangsamoro region.
Cotabato Archbishop Emeritus Orlando Cardinal Quevedo lamented the bombing and urged officials to “ferret out the perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring justice.”
“Perpetrated on the First Sunday of Advent, a season of hope, and at the beginning of the Mindanao Week of Peace, the massacre is the most terrible and most damnable terroristic crime against innocent worshippers on a Christian holy day,” Quevedo said. “It is a tragic reenactment of the insane bombing at the Jolo Cathedral during Sunday Mass several years ago.”
In a separate statement, Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said the casualties have become part of the group of persecuted Christians remembered during Red Wednesday, which was recently observed on Nov. 29.
“Surely, the killers who precipitated such a horrendous act of violence have their loved ones too. What would it take to get them to see in the families of their victims their own families?” the CBCP president wrote in a statement on Dec. 3.
“Such violence should not only be denounced; it should also be renounced as a way of seeking redress by every peace-loving Filipino,” he added.
Marawi is still reeling from the attack it suffered at the hands of the IS-linked Maute Group in 2017, which left a trail of death and destruction after five months of intense gunfights between the terrorists and government forces. Rehabilitation continues up to this day.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to “bring the perpetrators of this senseless act to justice” and appealed to the public for calm.
BARMM has the lowest percentage of Catholics in the Philippines at just over 5 percent, according to the 2020 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The region is considered by terror groups as part of the Islamic caliphate, with local groups, including the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, pledging allegiance to the IS. Sheila May S. Balagan
