- Catholic Church’s prog. to focus on the 3 bombed Churches with prayer vigil march commencing from Kochchikade on 20 Apr. to Katuwapitiya
The Catholic Church yesterday (17) said that it has planned a ‘spiritual’ commemoration, which will not be in any way ‘political’, to mark the five-year anniversary of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The programme which consists of several events including those focusing on the Churches that were attacked, is expected to bring the attention of both the local and international communities to the Easter Sunday attacks and justice regarding the same.
Announcing the programme during a press briefing held in Colombo, Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said that a prayer vigil based march will be organised on 20 April by the Archdiocesan Kithu Dana Pubuduwa Apostolate from Kochchikade to Katuwapitiya. Two minutes of silence will be observed to commemorate those who died in the Easter Sunday attacks, in addition to prayers, the lighting of candles, and speeches by dignitaries. The event will be attended by priests from various religions, among other groups.
The Archbishop emphasised that in a context where the Governments and officials that came to power since the Easter Sunday attacks took place have failed to deliver justice for the victims of the attacks and have also shown a great unwillingness to do that, the present situation calls for interventions and attention from other parties, especially the international community. Despite the fact that it has been five years since the Easter Sunday attacks and many requests have been made to the authorities, he said that the authorities have failed to conduct a transparent and satisfactory investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks. “The situation is such that we have no hope that justice will be delivered. However, we will not give up hope,” he noted, adding that even though various parties, including political parties, have promised to deliver justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks, it remains to be seen whether their intentions are genuine and whether they will fulfil those promises.
As part of the said programme, the Catholic Church will send to the Vatican the signatures collected in order to have those who died in the Easter Sunday attacks canonised. The Archbishop added that this will be the first step in the process, and that under this step, the deceased would be declared ‘heroes of faith’. This, he added, is expected to attract the international community’s attention to the impacts of the Easter Sunday attacks, which he observed has been forgotten by the local authorities.
On 21 April, 2019, Easter Sunday, three Churches (the St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, the St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, and the Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury Hotels in Colombo (the Cinnamon Grand, The Kingsbury, and Shangri-La) were targeted in a series of coordinated suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people excluding the bombers were killed in the attacks, including about 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured. Subsequent investigations revealed that the terror attacks were carried out by the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) led by Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran, one of the bombers who carried out the attack on the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.