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