Twelve people including three local
priests have been arrested in South Sudan after the shooting of
the world's youngest bishop-elect, Italian missionary Christian
Carlassare, earlier this week, the Combonian missionaries'
magazine Nigrizia said.
Among the three priests working in 43-year-old Father
Carlassare's diocese of Rumbek is diocesan coordinator John
Mathiang, it said.
Aside from the priests, the others arrested are lay members of
the local church community.
Nigrizia said they were all members of the Dinka ethnic group,
the same as that of President Slava Kirr, who want to control
the local church and saw Carlassare as a threat.
The attack has been seen as an attempt to dissuade him from
accepting his upcoming formal ordination as bishop.
Carlassare, from Vicenza in northern Italy, is in a stable
condition after being shot four times in the legs.
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