First mass in Sri Lanka churches since Easter Sunday massacre

Catholics in Sri Lanka attended mass for the first time since the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 158 people and injured a further 500.

Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who called all the churches to close their doors the past three weeks due to security threats conducted mass at St. Theresa’s Church at the heart of Colombo under tight security.

While armed military and Special Forces squads wielding guns stood guard, every person entering the church was searched for weapons and explosives.

The church’s large car park was empty as no vehicles were allowed to park inside. Church regulars were stationed at the gates of all churches around Colombo to identify parishioners and look for suspicious individuals.

Parishioners were also instructed not to carry backpacks and to keep their personal prayers short.

Seven suicide bombers carrying backpacks with explosives struck two Catholic churches and one Protestant church, as well as three luxury hotels, on Easter Sunday last month.

Many churches outside Colombo resumed regular services from last week  under tight security provided by the police and military.

Regular services were cancelled across all churches soon after the deadly suicide attacks. Cardinal Ranjith however conducted private services on Sundays that were broadcast live on national television.

For most of the staunch Sri Lankan Catholics in Sri Lanka, the opening the doors of their churches on Sunday was an emotional moment.

“It was very emotional,” said one parishioner who attended the packed service at St. Theresas’s.

“The priest who started the service started crying and there wasn’t a single dry eye through the entire service. It was a sad, but happy moment. It was like coming back home.”

At the St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya where a bomber killed over a hundred people including children, the first Sunday mass since the attacks was a “somber one” said parishioners. The mass was held with over around 1,000 men, women and children in the Sunday school premises adjoining the bombed church that is still undergoing renovation.

Like in most Catholic churches around the island, the sermon surrounded the message of peace and hope. “We lost a lot of lives, but we should not lose hope,” said the chief priest, Father Shiral Fonseka during the sermon.

Survivors of the attacks, including a large number of men and women recovering from injuries attended the mass at St. Sebastian’s Church. At one point, the entire congregation was in tears as the priest prayed for the lives lost, the children orphaned and the widows and parents left behind.

“We thought we had run out of tears, but we cried again today,” Luxman Perera, the church carpenter, who witnessed the bomber detonating himself told The Telegraph. “Most of us were shivering throughout the service,” he said. Relatives of victims who died in the attack also came back to church for the first time since the bombing.

“It was very, very difficult to come back,” said the husband (who didn’t want to be identified) of a 34-year-old woman who died listening to the vote of thanks on the church pew on Easter Sunday.

“Bringing my eighty ear old daughter back to the place where she lost her mother was especially difficult. But I want to teach her that nothing can keep us from coming back.

Even if they bomb us to death, we will keep coming back to the Lord.” All Catholic schools, which were also ordered to be closed by the cardinal, are also scheduled to re-open on Tuesday.

Although public schools reopened last Monday, they recorded less than ten percent attendance this week, with some schools in Colombo recording a zero percent attendance.

Meanwhile following anti-Muslim riots, curfew was imposed in Chilaw, some 40km North of Colombo. This is the second time anti Muslim clashes have erupted since the Easter Sunday’s attack that has been claimed by Isis.

Last Sunday, riots in Negambo led to tense situation where dozens of Muslim houses and businesses were attacked by mobs. A military spokesman told the Telegraph that there have been no casualties and that “the situation was brought swiftly under control.”

The riots erupted after some anti Muslim posts were circulated via social media. Police said the person responsible for posting the comments inciting racial hatred has been arrested.