A Syrian priest was killed on Sunday (June 23) in an attack on a convent by militants linked to the jihadi group, Jabhat al-Nusra, according to Fides.

Another priest, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told the Catholic Herald that Ghassanieh, the village where Francois Murad died, “like other Christian villages, has been almost completely destroyed and is almost totally abandoned”.

“The only thing we can do,” he said, “is pray that this folly ends soon and that no more weapons are sent to Syria because that would only prolong this absurd civil war.”