Nigeria: prelate urges calm following bombing of church

March 13, 2012

Amid reports that Christian youth were killing Muslims in retaliation for a terrorist attack on a central Nigerian parish, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos appealed for calm.

“The young people become very angry and very restless,” he told Vatican Radio. “It took our intervention to calm them down, because they kept saying, ‘Enough is enough. We have been attacked again and again when we have nothing wrong.’”

“There is definitely tension, and I see that it is our duty as religious leaders to work hard to bring down the tension, even though out of sentiment and out of anger many people are saying, ‘Enough is enough, we must do something,’ our message is consistently that of the Gospel,” he added.

Archbishop Kaigama spoke of “the effort to overcome evil with love, overcome evil with good, and then to allow God to take control of the situation.”

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Archbishop of Jos: Religious leaders must bring down tension in Nigeria (Vatican Radio)
• Reprisals kill 10 after church bombed in Nigeria's Jos (Reuters)
• Catholic parish bombed in Nigeria (CWN, 3/12)