‘Grateful and blessed’: Mass. church group returns home after being near violence in Israel

SALEM, Mass — Members of a Massachusetts church group returned home on Saturday after their nine-day trip to Israel was cut short after the violence intensified between Hamas and Israel.

More than 30 members from Mary Queen of the Apostles Parish in Salem were on a spiritual pilgrimage when the deadly attacks first happened.

“I have not been in a situation before in which I heard bomb alarms going off,” said Father Bob Murray, pastor of the Mary Queen of Apostles church. “And so to hear the roar of that and then to look up into the sky and see the tailings of bombs or whatever, is very, very frightening.”

Murray said his group landed in Tel Aviv one day before Hamas mounted its attack. “Bad timing,” Murray said.

But, initially, tour operators assured the group they were not in danger -- given they were 50 miles away from the Gaza Strip.

“Saturday morning we started touring,” Murray said. “We went to the Garden of Gethsemane and celebrated mass there.”

And that’s when the group began hearing those distant bombs. One of the parishioners in the group shared a cell phone video with Boston 25 from Jerusalem where you can hear the wailing sirens warn the city of impending danger.

“On Monday, we were in Bethlehem,” Murray said. And that’s when tour operators decided to cut things short. “We were ordered to go back to our hotel to evacuate,” he said.

The group was first bussed to Nazareth, three hours north -- and, eventually to Amman Jordan. It took two more days to find enough room on planes for the entire group -- but, eventually, the 30 parishioners boarded a flight to Ankara, Turkey, a second to Istanbul and then finally a third flight back to Boston.

Total travel time in the air: About 15 hours.

“We are grateful and blessed to be back in Boston in the safety of our home and to be united again with our family and friends. We thank God for his goodness to us and for all the assistance, support, and prayers from our family and friends and the people of our parish, the leadership team, the priests, and people of our Archdiocese and beyond,” said Murray.

Rev Murray is also thanking everyone on his team at the Pastoral Center, the help and support of Rep. Seth Moulton and his team, and the concern of our Senators Markey and Warren for helping everyone get home.

Mari Alix, a tour participant, said she was not afraid something terrible would happen to the group, because they kept getting reassured about safety.

“Throughout the week, my trust and my faith kept me going,” she said.

Bill Card, another participant, said what started as a group of individual parishioners became, by the end of the week, something else.

“Through our pilgrimage and journey and emotion, we really came together as one family... one community,” he said.

A community grateful to be out of harm’s way, but saddened over the slaughter.

“While the purpose of our journey was a spiritual pilgrimage, the violence that is causing such pain and suffering in the Holy Land has shaken us terribly but not our faith and the recognition that we need to pray for peace and the victims and the families of all those who are more immediately affected by this tragic situation, said Murray.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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