Bombers behind April 21 attacks forgiven: Cardinal

Sri Lanka Catholic church 'forgives' 2019 Easter suicide bombers

by Staff Writer 13-04-2020 | 10:37 AM

COLOMBO (News1st): Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church, in an Easter Sunday mass broadcast on Sirasa TV, said it had forgiven the suicide bombers behind the attacks on Easter Sunday last year. "...we offered love to the enemies who tried to destroy us," Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said. "We forgave them." The Cardinal added that instead of retaliating, the nation's Catholic minority had contemplated Jesus' message of hope and reduced tensions.

The April 21 Easter Sunday bombers targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 279 people and wounding 593.

This year's Easter celebrations were muted amidst a nationwide indefinite curfew imposed to contain the novel coronavirus. Some 199 people have been infected, with seven deaths, the government said. Closed-door Easter services were conducted at two of the churches targetted by the bombers last year -- St Anthony's and St Sebastian's.