After the tragedy on Bondi Beach, Australians are presented with a choice: to descend into violent reprisals, leading potentially to further deaths. Or to come together as one, to embrace and love one another, and to heal, while continuing to support law enforcement to do their job. The former is the road to chaos. The latter is both Australian* and *Catholic and would pave the way for all our communities to feel safe.

On Sunday 14 December 2025, at approximately 18:40 AEST, gunmen Sajid Akram, 50, and his son, Naveed, 24, opened fire on innocent members of the public at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach. It has now been well established that this was a motivated terrorist attack on the Jewish community celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. Close to a thousand participants, including children, were in attendance, while the famous beach and promenade were packed to the brim. This horrific act of antisemitism lasted for between five and ten minutes, but it will resound for a lifetime for the victims, for all Australians, and for people of good will the world over. In this short reflection I try to demonstrate that Catholic Social Thought (CST) – insofar as it affirms the dignity of every human person and the need to strive for the common good – can be used to facilitate solidarity with and empathy for the Jewish community, and to defuse tension in Australian society at large.

Since the October 7 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas, which took the lives of at least 1,219 people, along with the capture of over two hundred hostages, the Jewish people have seen a rise in antisemitic sentiment and attacks. The atrocities of October 7 are indisputable and are condemned by all people of good conscience. At the same time, throughout the world political, moral, and religious authorities have been wrestling with the multitudinous factors in Israel and Gaza – which has also seen terrible devastation and tragedy – and the geopolitical and cultural ramifications for Jewish and Muslim peoples. Weighing in on these issues is difficult. This is because no matter what position one takes, the feeling of being exposed to unscrupulous attacks from all sides of the political and religious spectrum is omnipresent.

Instead of focusing on these complex factors that are well beyond the scope of this piece, I turn to the elephant in the room: social media. No more than seconds after the shooting, there were commentaries, conspiracy theories, and misinformation rife across all platforms. Admittedly there were visuals of the remarkable heroism of average Australian citizens and tourists, which comprise examples of some positive uses of social media. But mounting evidence from the social sciences indicates that these platforms are designed to increase exposure to salacious and morally destructive content. This facilitates neurological addiction which is reinforced by individually tailored algorithms, consigning us to destructively polarising feedback loops and echo-chambers. No wonder, then, that society is so divided.

These pithy, attention-grabbing platforms using video shorts and discussion panels also lead to a lack of nuance and critical thinking, exacerbating our cognitive shortcuts and biases. For example, is it not easier to consider all Muslims terrorists than to justly condemn the minority that commit such crimes? Conversely, it is far easier to blame all Jews than to distinguish between the Israeli government and the average Jewish adherent. And in both these cases, such cognitive shortcuts, from the point of view of CST, reduce individual human beings created in God’s image to faceless categories that can conveniently be dismissed, scapegoated, and vilified. This also affords people an inappropriate and twisted sense of “moral” justice, allowing them to make irreversible and deadly decisions about the lives of others in the way that we have seen took place on 14 December.

CST obligates us to call out such atrocious vilification whenever it takes place. And there are proper avenues for this. For example, in a Western democracy, our communities have the legal right to protest publicly. Still, that right should never extend to explicit threats of violence that border on the genocidal, such as those that have recklessly been directed against Jewish communities worldwide in recent years. We must condemn the instigators of such terrible acts of violence, whether they are present on social media or on the streets. At the same time, it is worth remembering that not everyone who belongs to a religious group – Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise – necessarily shares the pernicious and distorted ideology promoted by a fanatical minority either online or during protests.

That religion played a role in what took place on Bondi Beach is undeniable. We can all agree that both good and evil are often committed in the name of religion. The mistake is to attribute the source of all societal evils to a specific religion, in this case Islam. Catholics believe that all people individually and collectively are called to seek the good, and evil is a consequence of distorted thinking and desires. What we need to understand is what allows such corrupt desires to fester so that we can implement preventative strategies and work towards harmony in our societies. Moreover, we must foster the sort of virtue demonstrated by Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Muslim Syrian immigrant, who disarmed the older gunman. His actions showed us heroism often transcends religious differences.

The virtue of courage was displayed by people from all walks of life at Bondi Beach on Sunday night, demonstrating that in the face of horror Australia remains a multicultural success. Often and increasingly polarised, with ancient Indigenous foundations, Australia at one stage became paradoxically both Indigenous and colonial, invaded and settled. It is also English, Irish, Scottish, Greek, Italian, Jewish, Arabic, Asian, Indian, Slavic, etc., with all the religious and cultural associations these peoples have brought to enrich this great country. A member of the commonwealth, our nation is a democracy, and it is full of heroes. Our whole population has been moved over the last few days as stories of the genuine bravery of surf lifesavers, ordinary civilians, police officers, nurses and hospital staff from all backgrounds have come to light. These women and men faced imminent danger and worked under incredible duress on Sunday night to save lives. They deserve our utmost gratitude and honour.

Considering these incredible displays of heroism, it is demoralising that, in their wake, the voices of division have risen into a cacophony, especially on social media. People understandably want to vent their frustration, anger, fear, and resentment. But this often goes too far; the desire for simplistic retribution only perpetuates the cycle of violence. The Christian position is to imitate the Son of God, Jesus, in his Eucharistic and self-sacrificial love manifested on the cross. This love was present in all those who rushed to help the victims of Sunday’s tragedy; it was as if they were running to their own cross, willing to take it up for the sake of their neighbour. The cost could have been, and in some cases was, their very lives. And we give thanks (which is literally what the word ‘eucharist’ means) to God for the sacrifice of these heroes, for had they not courageously put themselves in harm’s way, many more innocent people could have died.

Moreover, the cross as an instrument of suffering is something Jesus carries for us – with all its heaviness and agony – leading the way in times of trial, with the hope that love will finally prevail over suffering. Now more than ever, we need to carry one another’s burdens in unity and compassion so that the forces of hatred do not overwhelm us. At the very least, Jesus’ example – reflected in the acts of heroism we saw on Sunday night – should restrain us from turning against our neighbours, from spreading more division and violence. Pressing matters such as gun ownership, migration levels, combatting extremism and fostering positive inter-cultural relations are all important to address, but this can be done without vilifying entire communities, Muslim or otherwise. And there is absolutely no place for the murderous antisemitism that has been allowed to fester in our society. Government must do more to bring this vile phenomenon to an end.

As we resolutely stand by our suffering Jewish community in this time of trial, and as Christmas approaches, Australians are presented with a choice: to descend into violent reprisals, leading potentially to further deaths. Or to come together as one, to embrace and love one another, and to heal, while continuing to support our law enforcement to do their job. The former is the road to chaos. The latter is both Australian* and *Catholic and would pave the way for all our communities to feel safe in this blessed land we call home.

Dr Mario Baghos is Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia.