THE NORTH London priest stabbed in the back with a kitchen knife last week left hospital on Monday to begin his convalescence.
When fit, 63-year-old Fr Edward Carroll, parish priest at the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Holloway, plans to fly home to Newry, Northern Ireland. Fr Carroll was attacked by a 27-year-old French man in his presbytery on Monday as he made his visitor a cup of coffee.
The kitchen knife could only be removed from his back by surgeons at the Middlesex Hospital after they had collapsed one of his lungs. But by Friday evening he was off the critical list.
The church has been flooded by letters of support from around the British Isles. Ben Deignan, Fr Carroll's pastoral assistant, said: "On Tuesday morning it looked as if evil ruled the world. However, by Friday evening it was perfectly clear that evil was totally eclipsed by the love of God, especially in the words and actions of his people."