An “energetic, all-out” condemnation of the massacre that took place last night in the parish church of Our Lady of Fatima in Bangui, where some Islamic activists of the PK5 District killed at least 16 people (including father Albert Toungoumalé-Baba) and injured another 60, attacking the church with grenades and semiautomatic firearms during Mass for the Day of St Joseph’s the Worker. It has been expressed today by cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, archbishop of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. In a statement sent to SIR, cardinal Nzapalainga makes an appeal ”to the government and to Minusca” (the UN forces in the country), “that they may shed light” on what happened, that “the truth may be revealed”, and that “justice may be done to the Central African population”. In his message, the archbishop of Bangui expresses his pain for the victims, the injured people and their families, and anxiously wonders: “What is happening, is the Country being manipulated? Is the country being used, is someone trying to divide it? Is there a hidden agenda?”. “For decades, what have we done to this Country – he realises –. Endless coups and rebellions. This is the result: deaths, pillages and destruction, and the latest tragic events remind us that violence is not a solution to our problems”. Cardinal Nzapalainga begs for “heroes” for his country, heroes that may say in one voice “no to violence, no to barbarism, no to self-destruction”. Then, he calls on “all political, ruling, religious groups, without distinctions, that all together we may stand up as one man to condemn what happened, because it is the Central African body itself that is threatened from within”. He asks believers to “keep cool and steer clear of rage, hatred, revenge, retaliations”. “We counted our dead and will keep counting them – he writes -. We have our sick and disabled people and will keep counting them. For Heaven’s sake, let’s stand up not to destroy ourselves”. After asking the faithful for the umpteenth time to keep calm and be patient, he concludes: “In the next few days, we will meet the people in charge and we will tell you how to behave”.