Vatican condemns beheadings

Vatican condemns beheadings

The Vatican called on Sunday the beheading of three Indonesian schoolgirls from a Christian high school a "barbaric" attack and said Pope Benedict XVI was praying for renewed peace between the region's people.

Unidentified assailants attacked a group of girls from a private Christian high school in the tense province of Central Sulawesi, beheading three and seriously wounding another. Police said one of the heads was left in front of a newly built church; the two others near a police station.

"Having learned of the sad news of the barbaric killing of three Christian girls in Indonesia, the Holy Father charged the bishop of Manado, Monsignor Joseph Theodorus Suwatan, to offer his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the diocesan community," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement.

He said the pope also assured the community that he was praying for the return of peace among the region's peoples.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but the Central Sulawesi region has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody sectarian war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1,000 people from both communities.

At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common. -- AP