SYDNEY, Australia (LifeSiteNews) — A man who struck and killed four children with his vehicle while driving under the influence three years ago has reportedly begun converting to Catholicism after receiving forgiveness from the children’s Maronite Catholic family.
On February 1, 2020, while driving under the influence of cocaine, ecstasy, and alcohol, Samuel Davidson, 29, lost control of his vehicle and struck a group of seven children, killing four and injuring three, Australia’s ABC News reported.
The children killed were siblings Antony (13), Angelina (12), and Sienna Abdallah (9). The Abdallah family are Maronite Catholics, an eastern rite in full communion with Rome. The Abdallahs’ 11-year-old cousin, Veronique Sakr, was also killed.
Davidson was sentenced to 28 years in prison in April 2021. Upon appeal, the sentence was reduced to 20 years with the possibility for parole after 15 years.
In a “Stand for Truth” podcast episode hosted by Charlie Bakhos last month, Danny Abdallah — the father of the three siblings who were tragically killed — recounted that his wife Leila went to the place her children died to pray shortly after the tragedy.
Questioned by reporters on the scene, she expressed that she couldn’t hate their killer and that she forgave him.
“I know the guy … was drunk-driving on these streets. Right now, I can’t hate him. I don’t want to see him. I don’t hate him. I think in my heart I forgive him, but I want the court to be fair,” she said, as LifeSiteNews reported at the time.
“I am sad, I am heartbroken, but I am at peace because I know my kids are in a better place. My kids are angels,” she said. “These are soldiers of God. There is an afterlife.”
READ: Catholic mom of 3 kids killed in car crash: I forgive the drunk driver, my kids are in heaven
“It was a genuine forgiveness, and then it trickled across the community, across the state, across the country, and then across the world — to the Middle East, to America,” Abdallah told Bakhos in the August podcast episode.
The expression of sincere forgiveness also reached Davidson in prison.
Remarkably, Davidson would end up meeting with Father Robert-Pio Albayeh, a priest well-known to the Abdallahs and one who had even served as their spiritual adviser.
“Of all the priests in Australia this guy’s talking to Father Robert, my spiritual father. And he doesn’t know that,” Abdallah said.
The Maronite priest reportedly met with Davidson in prison and heard his confession.
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During the course of conversation, Father Albayeh told Davidson that he knew the Abdallahs, and that they were members of his church.
According to Abdallah, Davidson told the priest that he “was able to see life in a different way” because the family had forgiven him even though the “whole world should have hated me.”
“That’s what has changed my heart,” he reportedly said.
In the podcast, Abdallah said Davidson now “prays the Rosary three times a day, he goes to Mass, he’s doing Bible study and he wants to become a Maronite Catholic.”
Abdallah said he wasn’t expecting Davidson to convert and that the glory belongs to God.
In June 2022, the Abdallahs shared their story and spoke about forgiveness during the 2022 World Meeting of Families in Rome after an invitation by the pope, the Daily Mail reported.
They also met with Davidson’s parents, who were grieving in their own way after losing their daughter to cancer and their son to prison.
“They know what we’re going through and they acknowledge that, and we have acknowledged their sorrow and pain as well,” Abdallah said.
The Daily Mail noted that Leila Abdallah, the mother of the three children who were killed, always tells those who ask how many children she as that she has seven: “Three in heaven and four here.”