The bombing of Catholic churches in Sri Lanka

Our Holy Week was truly a spiritual upliftment of our souls as we did not go on a Lenten vacation, but rather we had a “staycation.” You have to taste driving on the empty roads of Cebu City where a 10-minute drive would bring you far already. It brought me a sense of déjà vu back to the Cebu City that we used to love when only a few families had cars and a few motorcycles and traffic only existed in cities like Tokyo or New York. There was even a moment that from Sacred Heart Church, we returned to our house in less than five minutes. Some would call it a miracle in today’s times, but for us, this is just another day during Holy Week.

At the start of the Holy Week last week, I was blessed to have Fr. Ernesto Javier to talk about what Catholics ought to know about Holy Week and it was truly a great interview. We also joined the three-day Holy Triduum of the Sacred Heart Parish with no less than Fr. Manoling Francisco (he composed the famous Christian songs “Tanging Yaman” and “Hindi Kita Malilimutan”) giving us a historical, theological, and spiritual talk about the events that happened during Holy Week. While it wasn’t a retreat with Fr. Manoling, but it was truly better than having a retreat. Thank you, Sacred Heart Parish, for doing this Triduum every Holy Week.

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Thank God our Holy Week celebration was peaceful. Alas, we cannot say this about what happened in Colombo, Sri Lanka, when suicide bombers blew up three Catholic churches and three upscale hotels killing more than 200 people and injuring around 450. Sri Lanka Minister of Finance, Mangala Samaraweera, called the attacks “a well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy.” Indeed, after reading the news a day later, this Easter Sunday bombing was clearly premeditated and well-planned by terrorists.

To think that it’s already been a month since the killing of 49 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand by a white supremacist. But this latest bombing targeted the Catholic Church. But not only churches were targeted, but first-class hotels. At this point the Sri Lankan police said at least 13 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks in the capital, Colombo, and the cities of Negombo and Batticaloa. Seven of the suspects were seized at a hideout after one of them blew himself up, killing three officers.

We learned from a top Sri Lankan police official that they had alerted security officials 10 days earlier about a threat to churches from a radical Islamist group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath. With this news, we can only suspect that the Sri Lankan police did not really tighten security in the churches that were bombed. Of the dead, 35 were foreigners or tourists and certainly this incident would drag down Sri Lanka’s burgeoning tourism industry, which was experiencing a robust growth until this bombing happened.

We have read so much about the Sri Lanka civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009, where the Sinhalese majority fought against the minority Tamils, whose militants became known for having invented the suicide vest and made suicide bombing a Sri Lankan trademark that the world has known.

The Roman Catholic Church in Sri Lanka traces its origins to the arrival of the Portuguese in the early 1500s and the subsequent influence of Portuguese, Dutch, and Irish missionaries. Sri Lankan Catholics are largely concentrated in the Colombo-Negombo area. Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist, with Hindus being the largest minority, about 12 percent, followed by Muslims at less than 10 percent. About six percent of the population is Catholic. So, meanwhile, we search for more news about this Easter bombing.

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We learned last week that self-confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones was killed in Quezon City by still unknown persons. But due to the reality that the mainstream media shuts down on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Black Saturday, we heard very little news about the death of Sabalones. Of course, we understand that the police in Cebu City also had its Holy Week preparations. But with the Holy Week practically over we would like to hear any reports from the police on what happened or who killed Franz Sabalones. So far the Cebu City police has not issued anything regarding this incident.