VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas plea for peace around the world has been brutally ignored in Nigeria, where an explosion claimed by Muslim radicals ripped through a Catholic church during Mass.
Authorities say at least 25 people were killed Sunday by the explosion at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, near the Nigerian capital of Abuja. A radical Muslim sect waging a sectarian fight claimed the attack and another bombing on a church in the central Nigerian city of Jos.
Benedict didn't refer explicitly to the bombings in his Christmas Day survey of the world's trouble spots. The Vatican issued a statement later denouncing them as a sign of "cruelty and absurd, blind hatred" that shows no respect for human life.
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