Marking of 2nd anniversary of Easter Sunday attacks

All Catholic Schools will be closed on Wednesday April 21 as the country marks the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday terror attacks, the Church announced yesterday.

The announcement was made by a joint press conference held by Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Bishop of Chillaw Rev. Valance Mendis and Bishop of Galle Raymond Wickremesinghe where the church leaders announced about what they intended doing to mark the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday mayhem.

We urge all other places of worship including temples, mosques and kovils to observe a two- minute silence with us

“Two minutes silence will be observed at 8.45 a.m. in all churches. This would be followed by lighting of candles and oil lamps to pay tribute to those who had died in the attacks and sounding of the funeral bells.a special programme will be conducted in St Anthony’s shrine kochchikade where the first explosion had happened while a special song written by Professor Sunil Ariyaratne and composed by Rohana Weerasinghe will be sung by popular songstress Nanda Malini,” it was said.

Venerable Omalpe Sobitha Thera , A Mawlavi and a Hindu Kurukkal were also expected to participate in the event at Kochchikade.

“We urge all other places of worship including temples, mosques and kovils to observe a twominute silence with us,” Cardinal Ranjith said.

“A service will be conducted in the Katuwapitiya Church as well, while a religious procession of priests and nuns will take place from Marisella College Negombo to the Katuwapitiya Church. This will be purely a religious procession,” the Cardinal said.