The Vatican ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, escaped unharmed yesterday in a suspected grenade attack as he was about to consecrate the new church building of St Joseph Parish at Olasiti area in Arusha City.
Ambassador Padilla, accompanied by the archbishop of Arusha Josephat Lebulu who was also unhurt, was whisked away by police officers without officiating the opening of the church.
Eye witnesses said that the blast occurred few metres from where the Philippines-born Archbishop Padilla, who was appointed to Tanzania by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, was standing in front of the church’s entrance, ready to cut the tape to officially open the church.
Before coming to Tanzania Archbishop Padilla, 60, was Apostolic Nuncio in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He was ordained priest on October 21, 1976 and Bishop on May 23, 2006.
Meanwhile, Arusha Regional commissioner, Mr Magesa Mulongo and the Chief Physician of Mount Meru Hospital, Dr Frida Mokiti, named the deceased from the blast as Ms Regina Losyoki, a choir member of the St Joseph Parish at Olasiti. Her body was taken to hospital for preservation at 13pm. Other 60 people were admitted to various hospitals in the city for injuries and shock.
In another development, a survey in Arusha witnessed believers vacating churches. In what was connected with insecurity and people’s fear, many churches that had services in the morning and early afternoon were seen half empty.
Father Moses Mwaniki, who was assisting Archbishop Padilla, said he saw the grenade being thrown to the direction of the Nuncio, but it fell behind the back of a church member and exploded.
As hundreds milled around the Catholic Church premises after the grenade attack, experts busy collecting various samples, Mr Philemon Mushi, was but a shocked man.
“It is a great tragedy. We don’t know who has done this and the motive behind,” Mr Mushi, a senior research scientist with Arusha-based Selian Agricultural Research Institute, told The Citizen as he leaned against the wall of the church. He is the chairman of the parish for which the new church had been built.
Apparently it had taken him and other church officials long time to have the building constructed after raising millions of shillings from well wishers in Arusha and beyond.
Although the church building was not blasted, the impact of what bomb experts and other security officials say was a grenade attack, it was devastating.
“It has taken us months to prepare for this event. We had invited between 3,000 and 4,000 guests for a luncheon. Now don’t know what to do,” he said.
However, he was emphatic there were some policemen in charge of the security in the area, especially given the presence of the Vatican Ambassador to Tanzania Franciso Padello “as the normal protocol demands”.
SOURCE: The Citizen Newspaper, Tanzania