JAKARTA — Sri Lankan Christians on Monday were struggling to come to terms with deadly terrorist attacks that targeted Catholic churches during Easter Sunday Mass, with three hotels in the capital of Colombo also hit in apparent so-called suicide bombings. At the time of writing, the confirmed death toll stood at 290, with around 500 people injured, many seriously. Speaking by telephone to the Register on Monday, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo described the attacks as “a shocking incident.” “We never expected these kind of attacks on our communities worshipping in our Church,” he said. Cardinal Ranjith put the number of Catholics killed in the attacks at “between 150 to 180” and expressed his condolences to the families of the other victims, at the hotels and at the Zion Evangelical Protestant Church. “I hope that they [the Sri Lankan authorities] will discover who was behind this and bring them to book, according to the law,” the cardinal said.
Sri Lanka’s cardinal condemns “shocking” massacre of Catholics – National Catholic Register
