2 dead in Tanzania church blast

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — Two people died and 43 people were seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in a Roman Catholic church in northern Tanzania, a Tanzanian police official said Sunday

The Vatican’s ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, a Cebuano, was attending the official opening of the church when the explosion occurred. He escaped unhurt.

The fatalities died in hospital as a result of the bombing in the Arusha church just before Mass,, said Magesa Mulogo, the regional police commissioner of Arusha.

Mulogo said eyewitnesses report that the bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church. Mulogo said the driver of the motorcycle has been arrested.

Mulogo said the motive of attack is not known but Tanzania has in the recent past experienced sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims.

Four Saudi citizens have been arrested.

Mulogo said  they were among six people arrested.

Nuncio’s profile

Archbishop Padilla has been the papal nuncio to the Republic of Tanzana since 2011.

Padilla, who was born in Cebu City on Sept. 17, 1953, was ordained priest by the late Julio Cardinal Rosales in 1976.

In 2006, he was ordained bishop and was appointed by the Holy See as apostolic nuncio to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and was later assigned to Pakistan.

Francisco is the younger brother of Archbishop Osbaldo Padilla, also a  papal nuncio.

Padilla is a product of Cebu Catholic schools. He entered his intermediate education at the St. Theresa’s College and the Colegio del Santo Niño, finished high school at the San Carlos minor seminary, took his Theology course at University of Santo Tomas in Manila before he was ordained priest in 1976./AP and Ador Vincent Mayol