Nun alleges evidence tampering in case of Indian bishop charged with rape

Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 24, 2019 / 04:36 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Colombo says that government officials in Sri Lanka should be fired for failing to act on tips that terrorists attacks were imminent in the hours preceding Easter Sunday bombings in the country.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable behavior on the part of these high officials of the government, including some of the ministry officials,” Cardinal Malcom Ranjith said April 23 in response to reports that Sri Lankan officials did not pass on credible warnings in the hours before the April 21 attacks, including some that specified that Catholic Church would be targeted.

Warnings reportedly came from the Indian government and from other intelligence sources, and said directly that churches could be targeted by Islamist terrorist attacks. Government officials have promised an inquiry into those reports.

“These kind of officials should be immediately sacked, removed from these positions. And human beings who have a feeling for the needs of others and for the people must be inserted into these positions,” Ranjith said.

The cardinal added that if he had been warned that Catholic Churches could be bombed on Easter Sunday, he would have cancelled Sunday Masses, “because, for me, the most important thing is human life. Human beings, they are our treasure.”

“I would have cancelled even the holy week itself,” Ranjith told Radio Canada.

Thousands of Catholics attended Easter Sunday Masses at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo and St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church in Negombo, both of which were bombed at 8:45 a.m. Easter morning, as was the evangelical Zion Church in Batticaolo, on Sri Lanka’s east coast.

One the same morning, three hotels were bombed, as were other locations across the country.

At least 359 people are dead.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and more than 60 Sri Lankans have been arrested or questioned.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has asked Hemasari Ferando, one of the country’s defense ministers, to resign, along with police Inspector General Pujith Jayasundara. Both are accused of mishandling intelligence reports.

Ranjith old EWTN News Nightly that the local Catholic community has suffered tremendously because of the horrible massacre on Easter Sunday.

“We lost so many valuable lives in both churches … a huge amount of people,” Cardinal Ranjith told EWTN News Nightly April 22.

The Sri Lankan cardinal said that he rushed to St. Anthony’s shrine as soon as he heard of the attack Sunday morning, but the police did not allow him to enter because they suspected that more bombs could be inside the church.

“From the outside I saw a lot of devastation outside the church,” Ranjith said. “When I saw so many bodies, I was completely moved and disturbed.”

The Knights of Columbus have pledged $100,000 in aid for victims of the Sri Lankan attacks to help Cardinal Ranjith rebuild and repair his Christian community.

Pope Francis renewed his prayers for the victims in Sri Lanka and appealed for international support during his Regina Coeli address Monday.

“I pray for the many victims and wounded, and I ask everyone not to hesitate to offer this dear nation all the help that is necessary,” the pope said April 22.

“I also hope that everyone condemns these acts of terrorism, inhuman acts, never justifiable,” he said.

[…]

Quetta, Pakistan, Apr 3, 2018 / 12:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Four members of a Christian family were killed by gunfire in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday in an attack for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

The April 2 attack by men on two motorcycle came as the family was travelling in a rickshaw in a Christian neighborhood. The family, from Punjab province, were in the capital of Balochistan province to visit relatives for Easter.

According to Dawn, a Karachi daily, the deceased are Imran Masih, Tariq Masih, Pervez Masih, and Firdus Bibi. Sehar Pervez, a girl of about 12 and a daughter of one of the deceased, was injured in the attack.

“It appears to have been a targeted attack,” provincial police official Moazzam Jah Ansari told Reuters. “It was an act of terrorism.”

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack April 3 through its Amaq News Agency.

In a separate incident in Quetta the same day, five people were killed after a protest by Hazaras, a Shia Muslim minority ethnic group.

Pakistan’s state religion is Islam, and around 97 percent of the population is Muslim.

Christians have been targets of terrorist attacks and persecutions for blasphemy in recent years. A December 2017 attack on a Methodist church in Quetta killed eight.

[…]

Patna, India, Oct 16, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- In most religious orders’ novitiate year, prospective sisters study and pray. Sister Crescencia Sun, however, had another habit to acquire: killing venomous snakes.

In rural Bihar, about 4,500 people die of venomous snake bites each year. When the Sisters of Our Lady of Missions arrived in the Indian state in the 1990s to educate young girls, the sisters realized that God was calling them to another mission – a medical snakebite clinic.

“Initially, we didn’t have in mind to open the snakebite clinic, but because the people, so many of them suffered from snakebites and … many people were dying, we trained our sisters to learn this because they are nurses already,” Sister Crescencia Sun told CNA.

During the hot summer, the sisters treat 40-50 patients per day at their snakebite clinic, saving the lives of thousands of snakebite victims each year.

“In this place, many people are bitten by snakes … such as cobra, vipers, russell vipers, and krait to name a few,” Sr. Sun shared at the “Women on the Frontlines” symposium in Rome Oct. 16.

The symposium – hosted by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See – highlighted religious sisters’ work in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.

“Women religious are among the most effective and vital partners we have on the frontlines in fragile communities around the world,” Callista Gingrich, US ambassador to the Holy See, said at the symposium.

“Women religious are often the last beacons of hope for millions of people who otherwise would not have a voice. They serve the displaced and the desperate, frequently at the risk of personal harm, in places where governments have failed and humanitarian organizations struggle to operate,” Gingrich said.

Sister Sun told CNA that, at first, she found the work at the snakebite clinic to be very emotionally draining.

“The first three months that I stayed there, I saw very many people dying of snake bites. I was very sad, and I said: ‘Maybe this is not the mission for me,’” Sun shared.

“But, you know, when you see the people keep coming, then you get the courage, and I prayed to God everyday ‘Lord, if this is what you want me to do, you are the one to give me the courage and the strength,’” she said.

Apart from treatment, the sisters work in preventative education, explaining to people in the surrounding villages the danger and how to protect themselves from the snakes.

“Hindus worship snakes, so they do not kill them, even when they become victims of snakebites. So during summer, we work 24/7 day and night,” she said.

Because of poverty, many of the patients they see live in huts made of bamboo and grass with a type of mud floor that can attract venomous creatures, particularly in the summer and rainy seasons.

“We have many stories of people telling us that when they get up in the morning, they just put their foot down from their bed and that is where they were bitten by a snake,” Sun said.

To keep themselves safe, the sisters have also trained dogs to detect the presence of snakes.

“I was very much afraid of snakes. But, being in Bangalore for my novitiate, training to become a religious, in that area we also have plenty of snakes and cobras. That is where I learned how to deal and even have killed a number of snakes, so when I came here, that was a kind of preparation for me,” she said.

In 2018, the Congregation of the Sisters of the Our Lady of the Missions treated more than 6,000 snakebite patients at their snakebite clinic in Kanti, Bihar.

“I believe that God uses us religious as instruments and miracles take place because God heals,” Sister Sun said.

[…]