Sri Lankan Catholics join in Mass via television

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has celebrated Mass for Catholics in Sri Lanka from a small, private chapel at his home, writes Ruth Gledhill. Churches were closed for the weekend after the Easter church and hotel bombings in which more than 250 people were killed. More people died, including six children and three women, when Islamists blew themselves up in a police raid on Friday.

Last Sunday’s Mass was broadcast by television. Other priests were also present, along with political leaders, including President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. Cardinal Ranjith said in his homily: “This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday. This is a time questions such as, does God truly love us, does he have compassion towards us, can arise in human hearts.”

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the atrocities. Dozens of suspects have been arrested. Security officials warned on Monday that Islamists were planning more acts of terror.

“There could be another wave of attacks,” the head of Ministerial Security Division, a unit of the police, said in a letter to MPs and security personnel seen by Reuters. “Persons dressed in military uniforms could be involved.”

Meanwhile in the United States, a 19-year-old man, John Earnest, has been arrested and is in custody after one person was killed and more were injured in a shooting at a synagogue in San Diego. The shooting on Saturday, the last day of Passover, was at Congregation Chabad in Poway. “Our country should be better than this; our world should be beyond such acts of hatred and anti-Semitism,” said bishops’ conference president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.

President Donald Trump began his political rally in Wisconsin on Saturday with a fierce condemnation of anti-Semitism and hate crimes. “We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate,” Mr Trump declared. “It must be defeated. We will all get to the bottom of it. We’re going to get to the bottom of a lot of things happening in this country.”