Caritas official: Bombing of new Tanzanian parish surpasses other attacks

Arusha, Tanzania, May 6, 2013 / 08:50 am (CNA).- A top official with the charity Caritas Tanzania says a Sunday attack on a new Catholic parish was the first of its kind for the East African country.

“It is not normal and this has never happened in our country before,” said Joachim Wangabo, executive secretary of Caritas Tanzania, in a May 6 interview with CNA.

“The government says it is associated with Muslim terrorists, but it is necessary to know why it happened,” he stated.

The attack happened May 5 as parishioners were beginning a Mass to officially open the new Saint Joseph’s Catholic parish in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.

According to Wangabo, the government officially reported that one woman died and 60 people were injured.

Magesa Mulongo, the Arusha regional commissioner, told AFP May 6 that six people had been arrested for the attack, two Tanzanians and four Saudis.

The bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church, according to eyewitnesses, and officials said the driver was arrested.

The attack happened despite heavy security for the inauguration of the church.

But the Caritas official noted that recent incidents, including one in Zanzibar where a Catholic priest was shot in the head and another where buildings were set on fire, were “not like this.”

“We are very much shocked because it is the first time this happened in a church, when people were about to start praying and the Mass was about to begin,” explained Wangabo, who is based in Dar es Salaam.

According to the executive secretary, Catholics will react “with an official statement by the president of the episcopal bishops’ conference, which has not yet been released.

“Caritas is waiting for information from the archdiocese so we can give our response,” Wangabo explained.

Caritas Tanzania is a Catholic charity that coordinates with 29 diocesan offices throughout the country.

The Pope’s representative to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, escaped unhurt from the explosion.

“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,” said Archbishop Padilla.

“The attack should not have happened because it was a celebration of joy, of opening a new church, a new parish,” he told Vatican Radio in an interview published on May 6.

Archbishop Padilla said he is praying for “the victims who have died and those who are wounded, some of them very gravely.”

“I pray that peace will always reign, that violence would not be the way to resolve tensions,” he stated.

“This is my hope, 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,” he said.

Pope Francis’s Coat of Arms Features Jesuit Emblem

Pope Francis’s papal coat of arms was released today, and it features the Jesuit seal: IHS surrounded by a sunburst. The IHS monogram is the first three letters in Greek for the name of Jesus. A cross pierces the H in red, and there are three black nails under the letters.

Below the sunburst on the bottom left of the shield is a star symbolizing Mary, and at the bottom right of the shield is a nard flower, representing Joseph. The seal is almost the same as the one the pope used as a bishop, with the addition of the papal mitre hat and papal keys behind the shield.

Below the seal is Francis’s motto, the same motto he chose as a bishop, “Miserando atque eligendo.” Meaning “lowly but chosen,” the motto is translated from Latin as “because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him” and references the story of Jesus choosing the tax collector, Matthew, as one of his apostles.

St. Bede the Venerable, an English eighth-century Christian writer and doctor of the church, first used this motto in his homily about the calling of St. Matthew by Jesus, focusing on divine mercy. Jesus saw the tax collector, Matthew, sitting at a customs post and said to him, “Follow me.” St. Bede explained, “Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men.”

According to the Vatican, this homily has taken on special significance in the pope’s life and spiritual journey: it was on the feast of St. Matthew in 1953 that 17-year-old Jorge Bergoglio felt the call to religious life in the footsteps of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

Pastor's move to solitary confinement in Iran sparks worry

Washington D.C., May 4, 2013 / 01:19 pm (CNA).- A U.S. citizen being held in an Iranian prison for his Christian activities has reportedly been moved to solitary confinement, prompting concerns over his health and safety.

“We believe that he is being beaten in solitary confinement. We have no way of finding out about his health,” said Naghmeh Abedini, whose husband, Saeed, has been imprisoned in Iran since last fall.

 “There will be no more visitations allowed and we will have no way of knowing how Saeed is doing,” she explained.

Pastor Saeed Abedini is an American citizen born in Iran who is currently serving an eight-year sentence in Iran’s Evin Prison. Raised Muslim, Abedini converted to Christianity in 2000, and after marrying an American woman, he became an American citizen in 2010.

He spent time working with house churches in Iran until the government ordered him to stop. Since 2009, he has worked exclusively with non-religious orphanages in the country.

But despite complying with the government’s demands, he was arrested in the fall of 2012 during a visit to these orphanages. He was charged with posing a threat to national security through his previous work with the Christian churches, even though the churches are technically legal in the country.

Family members in Iran say that Abedini is weakened from torture and beatings and has sustained internal injuries that have not received medical treatment for months. They also warned that his kidneys may be failing.

According to the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing Abedini’s wife in the U.S., the pastor was one of a number of prisoners in his ward who signed “a letter expressing to prison officials their concern about the lack of medical care received and the threats and harsh treatment facing family members who come to visit.”

In addition, the prisoners “expressed their dissatisfaction in a peaceful, silent protest in an outside courtyard at the prison.”

Ten prisoners, including Abedini, were then placed in solitary confinement, and family members have said that they were turned away from seeing him, being told that he is not allowed to have visitors any longer.

Abedini “was most likely on a list of prisoners the prison wants to break,” a former Iranian political prisoner told the American Center for Law and Justice.  

He suggested that the pastor was placed in solitary confinement “to put pressure on his belief and faith.” 

The American Center for Law and Justice has voiced concerns that the pastor is “likely to be beaten again, in private, away from other witnesses and prisoners.” 

Given his internal injuries, possibly failing kidney and lack of medical treatment, the group warned that Abedini is “facing perhaps his most grave situation since his imprisonment last fall.”

The organization has been working for months to raise awareness and support of Abedini, calling on the U.S. government to intervene on behalf of the American citizen in the face of Iran’s international law violations. More than 40,000 people have sent letters of support and encouragement to the pastor.

Abedini’s wife said that the pastor had previously been placed in solitary confinement and described the experience as “the hardest time in his life.”

She is now pleading urgently for prayers on behalf of her husband.

“Please pray for his health and healing. Pray for his release. Pray that the Lord would use this for His Glory and salvation of many,” she said.