Vatican declares victims of 2019 Sri Lankan Easter bombings as ‘witnesses of faith'
Hundreds of people, including leaders from other regions, attended a vigil Monday in memory of the victims at the church of St Anthony targeted in the bombings.
Sri Lanka on Monday marked the sixth anniversary of one of the worst attacks on the island nation, in which at least 269 people, including 47 foreigners, were killed in the targeted bombing of Catholic churches and five-star hotels during Easter Sunday mass.
Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, told the attendees that Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican, has included the names of 167 Catholics who died in the bombings 'in the catalogue of the witnesses of the faith in its order book, considering the context of their heroism'.
Witnesses of faith are those who sacrificed their lives for their belief.
Cardinal Ranjith said they were chosen 'due to violent opposition to their faith motivated by 'odium fidei,' the hate of the faith'. He said seven victims of other faiths were 'respectfully remembered".
Pope Francis formalised in 2023 a new category of recognition by the church of people who lost their lives while professing the Catholic faith and created a special Vatican commission to catalogue their cases.
The commission, based in the Vatican's saint-making office, has gathered hundreds of cases, with a view to highlighting them alongside officially recognised martyrs of the church, who are on the path to possible beatification or sainthood.
Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group were accused of carrying out six near-simultaneous suicide bomb attacks.
Officials have charged dozens of people who allegedly received weapons training and participated in indoctrination classes from the two local Islamic extremist groups. But no one has yet been convicted or sentenced given 23,000 charges filed against them. Experts believe the case could drag for years due to the volume of charges.
The Catholic church has alleged that the government at the time covered up investigations "to protect the brains behind the attacks" and demanded further probing in the attacks.
The calls for investigation grew louder after Channel 4 aired an interview of a man who claimed that he arranged a meeting between a local Islamic state-inspired group, National Thowheed Jamath, and a top state intelligence official to hatch a plot to create insecurity in Sri Lanka.
He said the chaos would be used to enable former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later that year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
9 hours ago
- The Independent
A half-million young Catholics invade Rome, awaiting Pope Leo XIV at Holy Year youth festival
Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics poured into a vast field on Rome's outskirts Saturday for the weekend highlight of the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year: an evening vigil, outdoor slumber party and morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV that marks his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics. Leo will surely like what he sees: For the past week, bands of young Catholics from around the world have invaded the area around St. Peter's Square for their special Jubilee celebration, in this Holy Year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on Rome to participate in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism. The young people have been traipsing through cobblestoned streets in color-coordinated t-shirts, praying the Rosary and singing hymns with guitars, bongo drums and tambourines shimmying alongside. Using their flags as tarps to shield them from the sun, they have taken over entire piazzas for Christian rock concerts and inspirational talks, and stood for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages. On Saturday, they began arriving at the Tor Vergata field on the eastern flank of Rome for the culmination of their Jubilee celebration — the encounter with Leo. After walking five kilometers (three miles) from the nearest subway station, they passed through security checks, picked up their boxed meals and set up camp, backpacks and sleeping bags at the ready and umbrellas planted to give them shade. Leo, who was elected in May as the first American pope, was flying in by helicopter Saturday evening to preside over the vigil and a question-and-answer session. He was then returning to the Vatican for the night and coming back for a popemobile romp and Mass on Sunday morning. A mini World Youth Day, 25 years later It all has the vibe of a World Youth Day, the Catholic Woodstock festival that St. John Paul II inaugurated and made famous in 2000 in Rome at the very same Tor Vergata field. Then, before an estimated 2 million people, John Paul told the young pilgrims they were the 'sentinels of the morning' at the dawn of the third millennium. Officials had initially expected 500,000 youngsters this weekend, but Leo hinted the number might reach 1 million. 'It's a bit messed up, but this is what is nice about the Jubilee,' said Chloe Jobbour, a 19-year-old Lebanese Catholic who was in Rome with a group of more than 200 young members of the Community of the Beatitudes, a France-based charismatic group. She said, for example, it had taken two hours to get dinner Friday night, as the KFC was overwhelmed by orders. The Salesian school that offered her group housing is an hour away by bus. But Jobbour, like many here this week, didn't mind the discomfort: It's all part of the experience. 'I don't expect it to be better than that. I expected it this way,' she said, as members of her group gathered on church steps near the Vatican to sing and pray before heading out to Tor Vergata. There was already one tragedy before the vigil began: The Vatican confirmed that an Egyptian 18-year-old, identified as Pascale Rafic, had died while on the pilgrimage. Leo met Saturday with the group she was traveling with and extended his condolences to her family. The weather has largely cooperated: While Italian civil protection crews had prepared for temperatures that could have reached 34C (93F) or higher this week, the mercury hasn't surpassed 30C (85F) and isn't expected to. Romans inconvenienced, but tolerant Those Romans who didn't flee the onslaught have been inconvenienced by the additional hordes on the city's notoriously insufficient public transport system. Residents are sharing social media posts of outbursts by Romans angered by kids flooding subway platforms and crowding bus stops that have complicated their commutes to work. But other Romans have welcomed the enthusiasm the youngsters have brought. Premier Giorgia Meloni offered a video welcome, marveling at the 'extraordinary festival of faith, joy and hope' that the young people had brought to the Eternal City. 'I think it's marvelous,' said Rome hairdresser Rina Verdone, who lives near the Tor Vergata field and woke up Saturday to find a gaggle of police congregating outside her home as part of the massive, 4,000-strong operation mounted to keep the peace. 'You think the faith, the religion is in difficulty, but this is proof that it's not so.' Verdone had already made plans to take an alternate route home Saturday afternoon, that would require an extra kilometer (half-mile) walk, because she feared the 'invasion' of kids in her neighborhood would disrupt her usual bus route. But she said she was more than happy to make the sacrifice. 'You think of invasion as something negative. But this is a positive invasion,' she said. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Reuters
Jordan says two armed people killed after 'infiltration attempt' via Syrian border
Aug 2 (Reuters) - Jordan's armed forces said on Saturday that its forces killed two armed people after a 'foiled infiltration attempt' through its border with Syria the previous day. The Jordanian Armed Forces did not provide further details in its statement but said that the rest of the armed group were pushed back to the Syrian territory. Jordan's armed forces often report foiling border infiltration attempts, sometimes for drug smuggling. In January, Jordan and Syria agreed to form a joint security committee to secure their border, combat arms and drug smuggling and work to prevent the resurgence of Islamic State militants.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Peru Two drug mule Michaella McCollum insists she's changed ahead of Celeb SAS challenge
EXCLUSIVE: Michaella McCollum is trying to move on from her Peru Two past and make her kids proud on TV this weekend If there is one women who might be equipped to take on the toughness of an SAS challenge, it is Michaella McCollum. It's been more than a decade since drug mule Michaella made headlines as one half of the so-called Peru Two. On 6 August 2013, Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid were arrested at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. Their luggage contained £1.5m worth of cocaine. Michaella had been convinced to attempt to smuggle the drugs from Peru to Spain by a man she met in Ibiza. But it was a decision that would see her go on to spend three years behind bars in one of South America's toughest prisons before being granted early release. Her interview comes after Channel 4 breaks silence after Gogglebox couple suddenly dumped from show. Looking back, Michaela admits that having messed up when she went to jail for drug smuggling left her so terrified of making another mistake she became so cautious and stuck in her ways. Signing up to Channel 4 's SAS was her way of giving her a push to take back control of her life. 'I feel like in my younger days, I made lots of mistakes, so then I was really cautious of doing things, because I didn't want to mess up again. I didn't want to mess up, I didn't want to make any more mistakes. "But we can't live life like that, because we're always going to make mistakes, we're always going to make bad choices, obviously not as bad a choice as I made previously, but it's okay to make a mistake. 'I had got to the point where I was just refusing to do a lot of things because I was scared. What if I mess it up? What if I take this job and it doesn't work out? What if I move to this place and it doesn't work out? I was just a little bit afraid of making those decisions. I felt stuck. So I guess that was the main thing for me, to try and learn to overcome that. 'I was at the point in my life where I was just stuck in my comfort zone, and I thought this is a good way to break those barriers and do the things that scare me, and maybe that will help me in the future with decisions and just different things in life.' Now 32, she is stepping back into the spotlight in the new series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, alongside the likes of Rebecca Loos and Conor Benn. The celebs take part in the most gruelling phase of Special Forces selection, directed through by an elite team of ex-Special Forces soldiers including Chief Instructor Billy Billingham. First she had to learn to swim before heading onto the show, then face a grilling from the SAS team and even fight her co-stars and take on a range of other challenges. Michaela knows she will always be known as one half of the Peru Two but Michaela hopes being on the Channel 4 series will show people a different side to her. She told the Mirror: 'It's so easy to sit at home and judge somebody when somebody's whole life is tearing apart. So I feel like it was important, I guess, when I got there, to show that I'm not just that girl who went to prison. "I'm a mother, I'm a human, I make mistakes. This is what we are and this is what we're here to do. So I hope it does change the public's opinion, but if it doesn't, it doesn't. 'I did that show for me, I wanted to improve myself and push myself. There's gonna be people that will always have their opinion. There'll be people that will always judge me for that(smuggling). But I'm not just that. "I hope it kind of, softens the image so people get to see me in a different light.' And having spent three years in the notorious Ancon 2 jail Michaella endured horrendous living conditions, physical violence, and while battling the legal system and learning to survive in an environment that was as hostile as it was brutal. Following her release in 2015, Michaella sought to rebuild her life in Northern Ireland, earning a degree in International Business Management from Ulster University in 2023. She also found a new passion for fitness, using it as a tool to reclaim control over her life. She regularly delivers motivational talks about personal transformation, overcoming adversity, and the dangers of coercion. Her experiences, both in prison and in navigating the challenges that followed, have made her a sought-after speaker for law enforcement and community groups. Away from the show She's a single mum to two twin boys and Michaela says they are going to be shocked when they see what she did on the course. She can't wait for them to see her in action and realise that behind the glam exterior is a tough cookie. She said: 'I spoke to my kids about the show, and they didn't want me to do the show, because they were like, 'You're going to die.' 'I'm like, 'I'm not going to die' And like, 'No, because this is really bad, and you're going to break your nails.' I'm like, 'It's fine. I can break my nails. It's okay'. 'But I think I had these conversations with them, obviously they're only seven, but I had these conversations with them after. So I think when it does air, to show them that, because obviously they don't see that side of me, to show that I am capable of doing that, and that it's okay. "They'll think it's super cool to jump off a speedboat onto a helicopter. They're going to see that mum is an action hero! I'm a single mum, so it's just me in my household. They always say mum doesn't do boy stuff but I hope when they see this and what I did I'll be like, "Yeah, you see me? I can do what boys do too.' Asked if she has learned anything from the experience, on top of all the other experiences she had had in life, she added: 'I mean, they're incredibly strong, resilient people. You don't normally meet people that are faced with the challenges and the things that they have to do. "And I guess when you listen to them and you talk to them, you realise that the things that you worry about in your everyday life really don't freaking matter. The things we're stressing about every day, they don't matter when you have people like them in the Army or SAS. What they have to go through when they are in times of war, you don't really understand that.'
