German bishops have called for Catholics to pray during a “very dark Advent” after a driver killed five people, including a nine week old baby, in the country’s oldest city this week.
Five people including a nine-week-old baby girl were killed and 18 seriously injured when a car zig-zagged through the inner-city pedestrian zone of Trier in the early afternoon of 1 December.
The 51-year-old driver, a native German who lives locally, was arrested. Three women aged 25, 52, and 73, a 45-year-old man and his nine-week-old baby daughter were killed on the spot.
There is no indication that the motivation for the attack was in any way connected with terrorism or religiously motivated.
“People were mown down more or less in front of our front door”, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier told domradio.de.
Trier cathedral was founded in the early fourth century and is the oldest church in Germany. It is believed to have been commissioned by the Emperor Constantine the Great.
The police had at first closed the cathedral, Ackermann said, but had reopened it once the man was arrested. He was therefore quickly able to organise an ecumenical prayer service. “A good 150 people came – which sounds a lot under Covid-19 restrictions, but there is plenty of room in the cathedral to keep to the 2m distancing required. It was even possible for people to light candles. We simply wanted to give people an opportunity to express their speechlessness. Prayer helps in such situations. Prayer helps, the space in the cathedral helps and the music helps – they help people to discard anxiety and end the day with positive thoughts.”
The President of the Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, said he was “deeply shattered” on twitter. “My thoughts are with the relatives (of those killed). They, the injured and those who died are in my prayers. Inhuman attacks must have no place on our society. It has suddenly become very dark in Advent.”
And Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich tweeted, “As a former Bishop of Trier, I am especially shocked and united in prayer with the people of Trier.”
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