Sri Lanka’s damaged St
Sebastian’s Church re-consecrated
St.Sebastian's church Katuwapitiya in Negombo, Sri Lanka |
Sri Lanka’s St Sebastian’s Catholic Church in Katuwapitiya,
Negombo city, was re-consecrated on July 21, exactly 3 months after a series of
suicide bomb attacks April 21 that also hit two others churches and 4 hotels.
By Robin Gomes
A Catholic church north of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo,
was re-consecrated on Sunday, three months after it was badly damaged in a
string of suicide bombings on Easter Sunday that rocked the Indian island
nation.
St Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, Negombo city,
unveiled a stone monument inscribed with the names of 114 people who were
killed in the April 21 attack, during the re-consecration ceremony that
included Holy Mass.
The coordinated attacks on three churches and four upscale
hotels by a group said to have links with the so-called Islamic State (IS),
killed 259 people and injured some 500.
Two of them were Catholic churches – St. Anthony’s Shrine in
Colombo and St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo. Another blast at the
Evangelical Zion Church in the eastern coastal city of Batticaloa also claimed
numerous lives.
Most of the casualties took place at St. Sebastian’s Church.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith the Archbishop of Colombo presided
over the Mass and the re-consecration service with a large number of people,
including the victims’ families, in attendance.
The Sri Lankan navy helped rebuild the church.
Addressing the gathering at the re-consecration ceremony,
Cardinal Ranjith questioned the ongoing probe into the blasts and said he
feared that the investigation “will be brushed under the carpet”.
The 71-year-old cardinal has been criticizing the government
for alleged culpability in the Easter Sunday bombings that he maintains could
have been prevented.
"They had been informed about the attacks more than
three times by the High Commission of India,” he said.
"The current leaders have failed. They have no
backbone. They must leave the government and go home and allow someone else to
govern the country," the cardinal said.
In the aftermath of the attacks, the Catholic Church has
received about €1.77 million in donations locally and from around the world,
which will be used to support orphaned children, educate affected children,
help the families of the victims and the physical and mental
rehabilitation of the survivors. A part of the fund will also help
rebuild the Evangelical Zion Church.
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