Keep watch over our churches

WE have had so many mass killings all over the world, many of them in schools in the United States (US). Among the more recent ones were 58 killed while attending an open-air concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017; 49 dead in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub in 2016; 32 in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; 23 in Killeen, Texas, in 1991; 21 in San Ysidro, California, in 1984; 17 in a Florida high school in 2018.

Last October, a gunman opened fire on Jews worshiping at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 11 and wounding seven. The next month, November, another gunman opened fire on the congregation at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 and wounding 20. Previous killings had been mostly in schools, in concerts, and in other public gatherings. People who gather to worship and pray in churches , who pose no harm to anyone, are not supposed to be targeted by mass killers.

Last March 15, two consecutive terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, left 50 dead and 50 wounded. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern New Zealand history. A point of greater concern to many was the fact that the gunman was an Australian who reportedly had become obsessed with terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists

in 2016 and 2017, and was believed to have started planning a counter-attack in the next two years.

Then last Sunday, April 21, Easter Sunday, as Christians gathered in churches in Colombo, Sri Lanka, gunmen launched near-simultaneous attacks on three churches and three hotels. Police defused bombs found in a parked van and a bus depot. The death toll had risen to 359 by Wednesday.

It was the deadliest violence in the island nation off the southern tip of India. Sri Lanka officials began to arrest and detain suspects, with powers that were used in the 26-year civil war that ended only in 2009. Officials disclosed that there had been warnings of a possible attacks by a radical Muslim group, the National Thowfeek Jamaath.

We hope that this latest attack in Sri Lanka is not an escalation of the attacks on churches in various countries. We have had our own experiences with jihadist forces identified with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who joined the local Maute Group in the siege on Marawi City in 2018. Government forces have since cleared them out of Marawi but remnants are believed to be active in remote parts of Mindanao.

In the wake of the attack in Sri Lanka, we must redouble our efforts to keep watch over our own churches in our country.