5th May, 2019
For fear of possible fresh attacks by Islamic extremists, Sri Lankan Catholics are celebrating Sunday Mass in their homes for a second week as churches remain closed.
It would be recalled that suicide bombers backed by ISIS attacked several locations in Sri Lanka including Churches and Hotels on Easter Sunday, killing over 300 people.
Cardinal Malcom Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, offered a televised Mass from his residence that was attended mostly by priests and nuns.
A letter from Pope Francis addressed to him was read out at the end of the service in which the pontiff prayed for the country saying: “hearts hardened by hatred may yield to His will for peace and reconciliation among all his children.”
Mass was celebrated for a small group of children and youth as a means for inner healing at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, one of the sites targeted by the suicide bombings.