Sri Lankan cardinal calls for
moment of silence for victims of Easter attacks
 |
| Graves of some victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attack on St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka (ANSA) |
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has called for a moment of silence
and ringing of the bells of churches and temples on Tuesday, to remember the
dead in the suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday a year ago.
By Robin Gomes
Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of
Colombo, has called on the nation to observe a two-minute silence and appealed
for all places of worship to ring bells on April 21 to commemorate the victims
of last year’s Easter Sunday bombings.
“Keep a two-minute silence at 8.45 am and light a lamp or a
candle at your home at 8.47 am and observe religious rites to commemorate the
victims on April 21,” said Cardinal Ranjith last week.
However, all activities scheduled to mark the first
anniversary of the Easter attacks will not be held publically because of the
lockdown against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“People can join these programmes broadcast on television
without any participation by the public,” the cardinal said.
Attack on 3 churches
In a coordinated move, 9 suicide bombers affiliated to local
Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath attacked three churches and three
luxury hotels on Easter Sunday last year, killing at least 279 people,
including 37 foreign nationals, and injuring at least 500.
The 7 bomb attacks took place at two Catholic churches and
one evangelical church in Batticaloa in the eastern part of the country. The
blasts happened between 8.45 and 9.30 on Easter Sunday morning.
The Catholic churches of St. Sebastian in Negombo and St.
Anthony, Kochchikade, were consecrated and reopened to the public but Zion
Church is still being renovated.
Cry for justice
After the bombings, the general public and religious leaders
blamed politicians and government officials for failing to act on intelligence
about the attacks.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka and Cardinal
Ranjith appealed to the government to appoint an independent commission to
conduct an impartial inquiry and to bring the perpetrators before the law.
Police have arrested 135 people in connection with the
attacks.
Christian forgive
At an Easter Sunday Mass, Cardinal Ranjith said that
Christians have forgiven their killers. At a Mass broadcast live, he said
that “as humans, we could have given a human and selfish response but we
meditated on Christ's teachings and loved them, forgave them and had pity on
them”.
“We did not hate them and return them the violence.
Resurrection is the complete rejection of selfishness,” the cardinal said in
his homily.
Lockdown
Sri Lanka has been under a curfew since March 20 to combat
the deadly Covid-19 infection.
On Sunday, the government announced a partial easing of the
nationwide curfew from Monday to boost economic activity. However,
on Monday, it dropped the plan and extended it to April 27 following a sudden
spike of 41 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours.
As of April 20, Sri Lanka recorded 295 cases of coronavirus
with 7 deaths.
The island nation’s planned general election on April 25 has
been postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic.
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