Catholic Church in Sri Lanka cancels all Sunday Mass

 

The Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith announced that the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has cancelled all Sunday Mass until further notice following the Easter Sunday bombings.

The Archbishop said the decisions was taken after he had seen a leaked security document warning of further attacks and added he had felt “betrayed” by the government’s failure to act on warnings of the bombings.

He said parishioners should instead stay indoors and do their prayers and that only when the security situation had improved would small services resume.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that crucial intelligence warnings had not been passed on to him.

The co-ordinated suicide bombings on Easter Sunday in three luxury hotels and three churches claimed at least 250 lives.

Sri Lankan police said they had exchanged fire with an armed group in the east of the country on Friday as part of the investigation into the bombings.

In a raid in Ampara Sainthamaruthu, near Batticaloa, a gun battle then ensued and when troops moved in after dawn on Saturday they found 15 bodies believed to be those of the suspected gunmen but also some civilians caught in the crossfire.

Via BBC