Bombings also were reported at the Evangelical Church of the Good News in Zaria and at churches in Kaduna. Vatican Radio said June 18 that the total death toll from the Sunday bombings had reached 45 and some 100 people were reported injured, either by the bombings or by reprisal attacks afterward.
Bishop Dodo told Fides, "I am in contact with the governor and police authorities to see how to ensure the safety of the faithful. The maximum security authorities arrived on the site of the attack to calm tempers," he added.
The bombing of Christian churches is widely believed to be the work of Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group.
Bishop Dodo said he had not heard of any Christians in Zaria seeking revenge for the killings on their Muslim neighbors, although such attacks had been reported in Kaduna.
"Especially when the news of the attack against the Pentecostal church spread, young people responded with violence, destroying some properties," he said.
"In the past few weeks several Christian churches in northern Nigeria have been attacked: It is likely that the perpetrators of this violence are following a precise agenda," the bishop said.
Archbishop Matthew Ndagoso of Kaduna told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview: "Nowhere is safe now: the church, the market and the homes, no one knows where and when they can strike.
"We will continue to appeal to the consciences of the attackers and we hope that they would one day have a change of heart and stop this wanton destruction of lives," adding that he hoped they would make themselves available for dialogue.
He also expressed concern that the suicide bombers have figured out how to bypass state security measures. He said anxiety and apprehensions are written on the faces of Christians.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, also said the attacks seem to reflect "an absurd plan of hatred."
Sister Semira Carrozzo, an Italian member of the Oblates of Nazareth who has been in Nigeria for 22 years and runs a school in Kaduna, told Vatican Radio June 18, "We are very close -- less than a kilometer -- from the place where an attack was yesterday.
"They attacked two churches in Kaduna and burned houses," she said. "The Christians did not stay calm, but reacted immediately, in the worst possible way."
She said Boko Haram, which does not like the fact that the governor of Kaduna state and the president of Nigeria are Christians, is carrying out the attacks to destroy or at least dishearten Christians and make sure only Muslims win in the next elections.
The members of Boko Haram "are extremists," she said. Since her school opened in 2000 there always have been Muslim children enrolled and the parents are supportive and friendly, she added.