After massacre: We are still here. The church in Syria will live

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The back wall of Mar Elias Church in the Al-Douala neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, remains torn open, covered only by green mesh. Plywood conceals the blast crater on the sanctuary floor. Yet on that makeshift altar of ruin, someone has placed a single candle — a flickering sign that the church still lives.

On June 22, 2025, a man armed with a rifle, knives, and a suicide vest entered this parish during evening prayers. The massacre lasted less than a minute, but its impact will echo for generations.

Father Boutrous, the parish priest, remembers being thrown beneath rubble when the explosion tore through the sanctuary. "I thought I was dead," he told me during my recent visit to Syria. "I felt peace, as if I were entering Heaven. Then I realized I was still breathing."

W