Bishop George Dodo of Zaria, Nigeria, was in the middle of his homily June 17 “when we heard a loud explosion.” A car bomb had just exploded near the Cathedral of Christ the King, where the bishop was celebrating the second Mass of the day.
“The car bomb created a crater two feet deep; all around there was broken glass, rubble and burning cars,” the bishop told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Reuters, the British news agency, reported 10 people were killed at Christ the King.
Bombings also were reported at the Evangelical Church of the Good News in Zaria and at churches in Kaduna. Vatican Radio said June 18 that the total death toll from the Sunday bombings had reached 45 and some 100 people were reported injured, either by the bombings or by reprisal attacks afterward.
It is rather terrible that this is now a weekly occurrence. It is also rather telling that there is silence about if from Muslims elsewhere, although there are a few brave souls prepared to speak out about what is being done in their name.
God bless these good people who head to church each Sunday with no assurance that they will be returning, and it is up to the rest of us to raise our voices and prayers in their support.