The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka handed over 12 new houses to families of victims of the 2019 Easter bombing over the weekend.
“It is a very happy time,” said Dharshani Weerapathran, a Tamil beneficiary, during the hand-over event attended by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo.
“We are really grateful to those who donated this project to us,” added Weerapathran, referring to Caritas Antoniana of Padua who funded the project.
Another batch of new houses were earlier distributed to beneficiaries.
Cardinal Ranjith, in his message during the ceremony, said if only those responsible to the bomb attacks “admit any omissions, we are ready to forgive them.”
The prelate said the government has promised to launch a “transparent and independent investigation into the attacks” but after the investigating body released its findings, former president Maithripala Sirisena “asked me how to implement the recommendations.”
“I replied that the president is not required to put those recommendations into practice, but that he should entrust the task to the police and the judiciary,” said the cardinal.
“But he didn’t answer me. After that the trust I had in him was shattered,” Cardinal Ranjith said.
“We are ready to forget, but don’t hide the guilty in the sand. Accept the truth if you want to escape Buddhist karma,” he said.
The coordinated suicide bombings on three churches, four hotels, and one housing complex on April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, took place while Masses and religious services were held.
The suicide bombers are believed to have been members of radical Islamist groups with ties to the Islamic State. It was the first major terrorist attack in Sri Lanka since the end of the country’s civil war in 2009. – from a report on AsiaNews
