(Vatican Radio) One woman died and more than 40 people were seriously wounded when
a bomb exploded in a Roman Catholic church in northern Tanzania yesterday.
Eyewitnesses
reported the bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church. Officials said the
driver of the motorcycle has been arrested.
The motive of attack is not known
but Tanzania has in the recent past experienced sectarian violence between Christians
and Muslims.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo
Padilla, was attending the official opening of the church when the explosion occurred.
He escaped unhurt.
Archbishop Padilla spoke with Vatican Radio in the wake
of the attack. “I would like to express my solidarity to the Archbishop of Arusha
and to the whole Catholic community of Arusha, for the very sad event that happened.”
The attack should not have happened, he went on, “because it was a celebration of
joy, of opening a new church, a new parish. But my prayers go especially to the victims
who have died and to those who are wounded – some of them very gravely.”
Archbishop
Padilla said he would continue to pray for peace: “I pray that peace will always reign,
that violence would not be the way to resolve tensions.”
“This is my hope,”
he said, “and I hope that I can also contribute to the continuance of peaceful coexistence
in this country, which has always been there in the last many years.”