Jordan: gunmen cut down a funeral procession in a church at Karak

On Friday 23 October 2026, two armed men got out of a vehicle and opened fire on a funeral procession leaving the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George, in the village of Hammoud, in the governorate of Karak, in southern Jordan. Between one hundred and fifty and two hundred people were gathered, inside and out, for the funeral of a woman: Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims of the town. The shooters aimed first at those standing outside, then entered the church, firing for about five minutes before fleeing.

The toll is not settled: the Public Security Directorate reports at least seven dead and around ten wounded, some gravely, while other counts give at least six dead and up to twenty-seven wounded. Several of the victims, most of them aged between fifty and seventy, are in critical condition, and the number of dead may rise. The identity and the motive of the two assailants remain unknown; no group has claimed the attack, and the hunt for them is under way.

The perennial doctrine names this act without detour. "Thou shalt not kill," enjoins the fifth commandment, and the Catechism of the Council of Trent ranks wilful homicide among the crimes that cry to Heaven for vengeance, the more odious still when it strikes the unarmed and the innocent. To shed blood within the consecrated enclosure joins to the murder the profanation of the holy place. Those who fell there, gathered around a dead woman to render a Christian the last duties, died in an act of charity and of prayer. The Church, which has in every age counted her martyrs, commends their souls to God, who keeps the blood of His servants and does not abandon the cry of the innocent.

The Jordanian authorities have opened an inquiry and called on the population to keep to the official channels. King Abdullah II has promised to answer "the terrorist attack that targeted Karak with the most severe penalties," warning that "those who wrongly imagine that the bullets of treachery can divide the Jordanian people will see their efforts thwarted by our unity." The governorate of Karak, with around three hundred and seventy-five thousand inhabitants, is home to an ancient Christian community; Christians make up close to three per cent of the roughly eleven and a half million Jordanians. We join in the mourning of the families and of this stricken community.

Sources. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the fifth commandment "Thou shalt not kill" and the sin of wilful homicide; Holy Scripture according to the Vulgate, Apocalypse VI, 9-10, the souls of the slain beneath the altar; Deuteronomy XXXII, 43, the Lord will revenge the blood of His servants.