The Catholic Church yesterday explained a controversial Vatican statement that appeared to raise its denomination over other Christian groups.

A bishops' meeting on Tuesday concluded that Pope John Paul II's statement had merely asked the followers to "be loyal to the truth and to their church".

The bishops said the papal statement spoke of Christ as the saviour of humankind.

A statement released last week by the Vatican drew protest from other world Christian groups. They understood it to mean that they were inferior to the Catholic Church and that they could not offer salvation to sinners.

"In ecumenical dialogue, it is never accurate to suggest that one religion is as good as another," Bishop Zacchaeus Okoth of the Kisumu Diocese said at a news conference in Nairobi.

He said Protestant churches and other organised world religions had not been deprived of significance in terms of salvation.

"This is precisely the reason that, through ecumenical and inter-faiths' efforts, relations are based on mutual respect," he added.

The church said it regarded other Christian faiths as partners and treated them with equal respect.

But Bishop Okoth said the Church was founded by Jesus to continue salvation work. "It is the Catholics' belief that this Church, entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, is universal.

At the same time, the Church yesterday asked President Moi to take immediate steps to restore Kenyans' confidence in the forces that keep peace.

"People have lost confidence in the forces of law and order and the judicial system and have no hope that solutions to recent serious crime will be found," the bishops said after their Tuesday a meeting.

In as much as the Church would not want to speculate over Father Kaiser's killing, the bishops said, the Government could not be "excluded" from possible suspects.

FBI personnel and the Kenya police are investigating the killing of the priest, who constantly criticised human rights' abuses and land-grabbing by top government officials.

The Kenya Episcopal conference chairman, Bishop John Njue of the Embu Diocese, read the pastoral statement at a Press conference at the Catholic secretariat, Nairobi.

The statement exhorted President Moi, the Government and the Civil Service and all the people to respond for immediate and practical renewal in the country.

The Catholic leaders expressed disgust at threats against critical clergy and people who spoke out against injustices such as child abuse, landgrabbing, extortion, shoddy workmanship and lack of healthcare.

The Church seeks a stop to such threats and culprits be reprimanded.

Proliferation of guns and the dependence on vigilante groups "or other groups of hooliganism" as forces of security should be curbed. "It is the legal duty of the government to protect its citizens."

The bishops warned that recent developments in the agriculture industry - unnecessary importation of sugar and the violence in coffee-growing areas - threatened to negate any gains the economy was likely to reap in future.

Unprepared retrenchment and transfer of teachers was another bloat on government's effort towards poverty alleviation.