A Catholic priest in Canada escaped injury Sunday after a man with a knife rushed at him during a Sunday evening service in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
“It’s a very rare incident and I think everybody involved is quite shaken up as a result,” Winnipeg police representative Constable Stephen Spencer said, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“Nobody expects that when they go to church on Sunday or any day of the week, that somebody’s going to be there with a weapon and try and attack somebody in the church,” he said.
Video of the 6 p.m. attack at Holy Ghost Parish was posted on social media platform X.
The video showed the priest arriving at the altar near the middle of the service, when a man in a yellow jacket approached. As they neared each other, the man in the yellow jacket pulled out a knife and raised it in his right hand while trying to grab the priest with his left.
WARNING: The following video contains footage of an attempted attack that some may find disturbing.
A priest narrowly escaped being MARTYRED during Mass in Winnipeg, Canada this past Sunday after being chased with a KNIFE by a THUG pic.twitter.com/ZzoARsoekc
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) February 11, 2025
The priest fled from the altar. The man in the yellow jacket did not follow. Instead, he stabbed the knife into the altar and sat down in a chair behind the altar.
A man who was later revealed to be an off-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer then walked up to the man, who did not resist, and handcuffed the attacker’s hands behind his back.
Winnipeg Police Service representative Constable Dani McKinnon said police do not know the attacker’s motive, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.
She said the priest did not know the man.
“This was extremely unexpected. We don’t often hear of acts of violence occurring within places of worship in Winnipeg,” McKinnon said.
“Police do not believe that the accused in this matter regularly attended the church or was part of the congregation, so it is more disturbing in that a motive hasn’t been established or may not until (the charges proceed to) court,” she said.
“He seems driven in the video, he seems to know where he wants to go with the assault,” she said, adding, “The pastor, he essentially stepped off the line of attack and saved himself.”
McKinnon called it “a bit of a miracle” that the officer was present and no one was injured.
Pawel Olownia, 50, of Winnipeg, has been charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon, and disturbing a meeting.
Olownia, who remains in custody, was previously convicted of assaulting a peace officer with a weapon in July 2018. He was sentenced to 11 months in jail in that case, the Free Press reported.
Olownia was given probation after 2004 convictions for assault, theft under $5,000 and uttering threats, for which he received probation.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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