BY BESS TWISTON DAVIES
CARDINAL. HUME has praised priests for their courageousness after a North London priest was stabbed by a man he invited in to have a cup of tea.
Fr Edward Carroll, 63, the Parish Priest at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Holloway, North London was stabbed in the back last Monday night by a disturbed man who turned up at the church begging to speak to him.
Fr Carroll managed to alert another priest from the church on the church intercorn before collapsing. Fr Mark Mathias, found Fr Carroll slumped on the floor of the presbytery Kitchen with the knife still in his back.
Fr Mathias who was with Fr Caroll when the attacker first turned up at the church, described Fr Carroll's attacker as agitated.
Cardinal Hume said last Tuesday, "I am proud of the fact that our priests carry out their pastoral duties, even when at times it means risking danger." Fr Carroll went into intensive care at the Middlesex Hospital after emergency surgery.
A 23 year old man has been arrested and detained in connection with the attack.
The attack on Monday night highlighted the problem that priests face in inner city areas. Last year, Anglican vicar Fr Christopher Gray was killed in Liverpool.
See Leader, page 4