NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      KHARTOUM (CWNews.com) - Three Catholics priests in Sudan have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in explosions in June, according to the Vatican news agency Fides.

      Fathers Lino Sebit, Hillary Boma, and William Nilo were arrested in police raids over the past few days, the archdiocese of Khartoum said in a statement issued through the Vatican. Father Boma's brother, Charles, was also arrested in connection with the case. The Islamic-ruled government has been fighting a civil war with rebel groups based in the mainly Christian and animist south over the past 15 years.

      "This sort of armed harassment directed against Catholic priests in connection with the explosions appears to be part of an attempt to discredit the Catholic Church in Sudan," the archdiocesan statement said. A powerful explosion went off in Khartoum in June on the eve of the anniversary of the June 30, 1989 coup which brought Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Al-Bashir to power.

      A French-based Catholic group monitoring Sudan, Vigilance Soudan, said the government had stepped up its attacks on Catholics by daring to enter and search the Cathedral of St. Mattieu in Khartoum where Fathers Boma and Nilo were arrested. "We have now moved from harassment to persecution," it said in a statement, adding it "feared the worst, including torture" for the detained priests.