With the nation’s only church closed, the faithful must pray alone
Last year Somalia’s only church was forced to close. St Anthony of Padua in Hargeisa, in the autonomous region of Somaliland, had only just been reopened after being boarded up for nearly 30 years. Within a week of its opening ceremony, government officials forced it to shut again, saying it was creating divisions.
Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti, the apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, said Muslim leaders had raised fears that the re-opening might lead to other churches being built and the conversion of Muslims. “It is very sad,” he said. “It was based on the manipulation and misinterpretation of a public talk by one of our volunteers.”
