Why didn’t the Pope not send the $500,000.00 to Sri Lanka? That would have made more sense. Muslim supremacists are cheering. 300 Christians dead and now this.Reportedly, Catholic parishes in Sri Lanka are also canceling weekday Masses and other public functions.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith shuts down Sunday Masses due to church bombings, continued danger
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: -Sunday Mass in Sri Lanka is suspended indefinitely following the terror attacks on Easter Sunday.
by David Nussman • ChurchMilitant.com • April 29, 2019:
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Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, ordered that all the country’s churches should be closed on Sundays after church bombings in the country left about 300 dead. He claimed he had seen intelligence documents indicating plans for continued attacks on Christians.
According to the Associated Press, many Sri Lankan Catholics watched Mass on television this Sunday. Cardinal Ranjith offered the televised Mass from a chapel at his residence in Colombo.
In his televised homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, the cardinal said, “This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday.”
Relatives of a blast victim grieve outside a morgue in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019.
He added, “This is a time questions such as, ‘does God truly love us,’ ‘does He have compassion toward us,’ can arise in human hearts.”
Reportedly, Catholic parishes in Sri Lanka are also canceling weekday Masses and other public functions.
A video released April 26 by the Associated Press shows the bombed-out interior of St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo five days after the attack. Saint Anthony’s was one of the two Catholic Churches targeted by suicide bombers, alongside St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo. Also targeted were a Pentecostal church and several luxury hotels.
Clergy of the Colombo archdiocese were in the pews for Cdl. Ranjith’s televised Mass this Sunday. Also present were President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. Many have criticized government inefficiencies for known terror threats that apparently went ignored.
Also on Sunday, the Sri Lankan government announced a ban on any face coverings. Going into effect Monday, the law will have the side effect of preventing Muslim women from covering their faces with the niqab or the burqa. The niqab is a full-face veil with a slit for the wearer’s eyes; the burqa is a full-body covering with mesh over the face.
Sri Lanka is a majority-Buddhist country with notable Christian, Hindu and Muslim minorities.
On Friday, April 26, Sri Lanka deployed thousands of security personnel to protect Muslim mosques and other religious centers, owing to fear of retaliatory attacks and copycat attacks.
Reportedly, some Muslims fled their homes in the Negombo region due to retaliatory threats from locals.
Also on Friday, a shootout and explosion during a police raid left 16 dead in eastern Sri Lanka. The police were raiding a garage thought to be a bomb-making facility in the town of Sainthamaruthu. Six terrorist suspects and 10 civilians were killed in connection to the raid, and two suspects reportedly fled the scene.
Just a few miles away, another police raid earlier that day led to the seizure of large quantities of explosives, as well as ISIS flags and uniforms and 100,000 ball bearings. The metal balls are often stuffed inside suicide bomber’s vests to increase the amount of shrapnel.
Blame for the Easter Sunday attacks has been placed on two local groups: National Thowheed Jamaat and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, but authorities are still probing for more information on ISIS’ alleged connection to the bombings.
Early reporting on the Easter Sunday bombings put the death count over 300, and even as high as 350. But later reports featured a corrected death toll of 253. Sri Lanka officials say that many victims’ corpses were torn to pieces by the explosion, making the initial body counts inaccurate. Findings from autopsies and DNA sampling provoked officials to announce the lower body count.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of the Colombo archdiocese(Wikimedia Commons).
April 23, the Tuesday after the bombings, was declared a national day of mourning in Sri Lanka.
Following the attacks, news came out that Sri Lankan officials had received warnings about plans to attack Christians on Easter Sunday, but failed to act on this information.
President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said they did not know about these warnings until after the attacks. They vowed to fire any government officials who received the information and failed to act.
Sri Lanka’s defense minister, Hemasiri Fernando, reportedly said in the aftermath of the suicide bombings, “It was quite impossible to protect a large number of churches last Sunday, despite receiving prior information about these attacks.”
He claimed that the government had little information about the alleged bombing plans, arguing that there were few preventative security measures that could have been taken.
Fernando resigned on Thursday, April 25, one day after President Sirisena encouraged him to step down.
Cardinal Ranjith commented on the government’s failure to act, telling the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on April 23, “It’s absolutely unacceptable behavior on the part of these high officials of the government, including some of the ministry officials.”
He opined, “These kind of officials should be immediately sacked, removed from these positions. And human beings who have a feeling for the needs of others and for the people must be inserted into these positions.”
The cardinal added that he would have canceled the public rituals for Holy Week and Easter if he had been informed of the threat.
These kind of officials should be immediately sacked, removed from these positions.Tweet
On Friday, April 26, President Sirisena told a press conference that he hopes this terror attack does not lead to hatred against Muslims. He also mentioned the goal of searching every house in the country to find suspects connected to the attacks.
One of the suicide bombers has been identified as Zahran Hashim, a Muslim preacher who called for violence against non-Muslims. Officials from India had warned Sri Lanka about Hashim’s dangerous rhetoric and the threat of killing Christians on Easter Sunday. Sri Lankan law enforcement took note of the warning but did not act on it.
According to officials, Hashim was one of the two suicide bombers who attacked the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, the nation’s capital. He was known to harass Sufi Muslims, a group whom many Islamic extremists dismiss as non-believers.
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DVult
4 years ago
All the mosques should be closed at least as long as the churches are closed.
Notice no outpouring of sympathy from Muslims as wayward
“Christians” and others showed Muslims in New Zealand.
As expected the media, tried to portray the shooter as a TRUMP supporter too!
the muslims won. $100 says church services will never be allowed again for “public safety”
John Mitchell
4 years ago
Attack a church, bulldoze a mosque. Problem solved.
Citizen 1949
4 years ago
I know it would never happen, but instead of cancelling services and closing the churches round up the trouble makers (i.e. muslims) and deport the whole lot. Revoke their citizenship. Bulldoze ALL mosques. THAT would solve the problem.
Citizen 1949
4 years ago
You protect the Christians by removing the trouble makers and their supporters.
felix1999
4 years ago
Pope Godless Globalist, any comments on this?
Is THIS just collateral damage to your Marxist SORO$ efforts for a one world religion and destabilizing countries to achieve that. You know what, clearly I don’t have the final say on this but I can have an opinion…. but when someone of influence claims to represent God, they are held to a higher standard. I don’t believe God is too happy about Christians being the most slaughtered and persecuted religion on this planet and it is escalating or Jews being marginalized, beaten and killed.
I wonder.. will this scenario happen to Pope Frances?
Matthew 7:20-23
[20] Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
[21] Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
[22] Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
[23] And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Alleged-Comment
4 years ago
Whaaa??? You don’t have faith in your god?? You appease the pagans this way.
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand.” Abu Huraira added: Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) has left the world and now you, people, are bringing out those treasures (i.e. the Prophet did not benefit by them).
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