Pope decries beheadings
2005-10-30 16:22
Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday offered condolences to the families of three Christian teenagers who were beheaded in Indonesia at the weekend in what he deplored as "barbaric murder," according to his spokesperson.
"When he learned the sad news of the barbaric murder of three Christian girls in Indonesia", the pope asked Indonesian Bishop Joseph Theodorus Suwatan to "present the most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the diocese", spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church will pray "for the return of peace between these peoples".
The three teenagers were found decapitated on Saturday after an attack by six masked men in the town of Poso, in the centre of Sulawesi island.
Intermittent violence has continued in the area despite a government-brokered December 2001 peace deal aimed at ending major Muslim-Christian unrest which in 2000 and 2001 claimed up to 1 000 lives.
With a population of 212 million, Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-dominated nation, but Christians and Muslims live in roughly equal numbers in parts of Sulawesi and in Maluku.