Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his sadness at ‘senseless’ violence in Nigeria after a series of bomb blasts occurred during the festive period, including two at Christmas Day church services.

The Islamist group Boko Haram has said it carried out the attacks, including one on St Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla (above), near the capital city, Abuja, that killed 35 people. A second Christmas Day explosion hit a church in the city of Jos, at which a policeman died during gunfire, while three attacks in Yobe left four people dead. Two further attacks hit the town of Damaturu, and a third struck Gadaka.

Speaking on St Stephen’s Day, Pope Benedict made a heartfelt appeal for the people whose lands ‘are drenched with innocent blood.’ The Holy Father expressed his closeness to the Christian community in the country and all those who have been affected by ‘this senseless act.’

“Holy Christmas inspires us in a particularly strong way to pray to God so that the hands of the violent are stopped, [hands] that sow death in the world,” Pope Benedict said in his St Stephen’s Day Angelus at St Peter’s Square.

He said that the news of the bombings in Nigeria had brought him ‘profound sadness’ and he wanted to assure Nigeria’s Christian community, hit by this ‘absurd gesture,’ that he was close to them.

The Holy Father added that, on the feast of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, ‘may his example inspire us to be courageous in living our faith in Christ our Saviour and ready to forgive those who harm us.’

Pic: A priest and security forces look over the scene of a car bomb explosion at St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, just outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja, on Christmas Day. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram said it planted the bombs that exploded on at churches in Nigeria. The explosion at St Theresa’s killed at least 27 people.