Sri Lankan cardinal: It is ‘sad and unfortunate’ that Easter bombing suspects are released

October 6, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2020 / 03:13 pm (CNA).- A year and a half after church and hotel bombings killed 259 people and injured another 500 in Sri Lanka, five of seven suspects arrested in connection with the attacks have been released by the country’s government.

The government has said the suspects were released due to a lack of evidence. However, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, as well as friends and family of the victims, have said they fear the release means corruption, or a lack of a thorough investigation, on the part of the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department.

“It is sad and unfortunate that those who are alleged to have been involved in the attacks are released,” Ranjith said in an Oct. 3 press conference, according to UCA News.

“Those who are affected physically and mentally wait for justice to be meted out, but it is unfortunate that the investigation is not going the way it should,” the cardinal added.

On April 21 of last year, suicide bombers detonated during Easter services at two Catholic churches and one evangelical Christian church, as well as at four hotels and a housing complex that same morning, with a total of nine suicide bombers. Later that week, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. Ranjith said security officials had confirmed to him a few months ago that there was sufficient evidence against many of the suspects who had been arrested.

Of the suspects released, Ranjith and other Sri Lankans said they were most dubious of the release of Riyaj Bathiudeen, brother of Rishad Bathiudeen, who is the leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress party in Sri Lanka. According to UCA, a police spokesman told journalists on Sept. 15 that Riyaj Bathiudeen had met with one of the suicide bombers before one of the attacks on a hotel, and he is accused of other acts of collaboration with the bombers. He was released after 168 days of detainment. On Oct. 4, relatives of the victims of the Easter bombings protested in front of St. Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitiya, a little more than 20 miles north of Colombo, demanding a fair and thorough investigation and for justice to be done.

“My family and child were both killed in the Katuwapitiya bombing. We need a fair solution,” S. Fernando, one of the demonstrators, told UCA. “Four of the seven suspects arrested along with Riyaj Bathiudeen in connection with the attack and detained for several months by the CID have been released and none of them have ever been produced in court. Do justice to the dead,” Fernando added. That same day, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a Facebook post that national security was his government’s top priority, and that they had not made any deals with MP Bathiudeen in the release of his brother. According to UCA News, other media reports in the country claim that if such a deal were made with Bathiudeen, it would be to help secure his support for constitutional changes that would grant “sweeping powers” to the president. Ranjith has been outspoken in calling for a thorough investigation into the attacks. “Anybody who had dealings with these people who set off the bombs, even their bank accounts and their telephone calls, has to be investigated,” the cardinal said in February.

At that time, Ranjith said he believed that past government commissions “may have worked to cover up what happened,” but that he was “pleased” with the way the new presidential commission seemed to be handling the investigation.

Rajapaksa, who assumed office in November 2019, had been working with Ranjith on the investigation. Ranjith appeared before the investigation commission Dec. 6 and 7, 2019, to express the concerns of the victims and of the Catholic community.

Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal; its population is more than 21 million. More than 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhists, roughly 13% are Hindus, almost 10% are Muslims, and fewer than 8% are Christians. There are 1.5 million Catholics in the country, constituting the overwhelming majority of the Sri Lanka’s Christians.

The country has been plagued with periodic violence since its 26-year civil war concluded in 2009.

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News Briefs

Should fears about climate come before kids?

March 5, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Mar 5, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Catholic academics have said that concerns about climate change should not discourage millennials from having children.

 

Recent discussion of millennial concerns began after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested that younger people might not have children because of fears about climate change.

 

“And so, it’s basically like, there is a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult and does lead, I think, young people, to have a legitimate question. You know, should–is it okay to still have children?” Ocasio-Cortez said in a video posted on the website Instagram.

 

But academics have suggested Ocasio-Cortez’s comments misunderstand why couples decide to have children.

 

Professors from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, told CNA that while the concept of bringing a child into the world is always daunting, environmental factors should not be enough to dissuade someone from having children altogether.

 

Dr. Joseph Capizzi, professor of moral theology and executive director of Catholic University’s Institute for Human Ecology, told CNA that he does believe the concerns of millennials are justified, and that “it’s not unreasonable to worry about the world into which one brings children.”

 

But, he said, having children is an expression of both love and faith, and that includes “faith in each other, faith in the goodness of God, faith in His creation.”

 

Capizzi told CNA that he thinks people overlook this basic fact because “so much in the world distracts us from the role of faith in the loving relationship of parents.”

 

“Concerns about the world and its future are distracting: in faith we are taught God saves and loves the world,” he said.

 

A recent online poll by the website Bussiness Insider suggested as many as one-in-three Americans shares Ocasio-Cortez’s fears, with 30 percent of all respondents saying parents should consider the effects of climate change before having a child, a number that climbed to 38 percent among Americans aged 18-29.

 

Dr. Catherine Pakaluk, assistant professor of social research and economic thought at Catholic University, said that having children is a sign of optimism and that climate concerns should take a backseat to other factors.

 

“I think it takes a lot of courage to have a child, in any time,” Pakaluk said. “Having children in general seems to require a lot of courage and optimism.”  

 

Pakaluk, whose primary research area is in demographics and families, told CNA that having a child is an intimidating task, but one that is made easier with what she called “spiritual resources.”

 

She said she is afraid that the spiritual resources needed to inspire couples to raise children are “waning” in today’s society, resulting in fewer births.

 

She did not, however, place the blame squarely on climate change, noting instead that the climate has undergone massive changes for thousands of years, “apparently without our affecting it.”

 

Pakaluk also said rhetoric about overpopulation should be tempered by experience, and that while many believe vital resources are becoming more scarce, the opposite is often true.

 

“As the world population has grown, together with research, industry, and innovation, in fact, most of those scarce resources have actually become less scarce,” she said.

 

The professor noted that while the world’s population had typically ebbed and flowed before steadily rising over the last century, the “golden age” of sustained population growth is coming to an end.

 

Pakaluk noted that about four decades ago, people simply ceased having large families –a trend she said cannot entirely be blamed on concerns about changing climate.

 

Pakaluk told CNA that while the threat of climate change does not worry her too much, one thing does: the recent Center for Disease Control announcement that the United States’ fertility rate was at its lowest ever, and that no state is currently having children at replacement level rates.

 

“Certainly, for (Ocasio-Cortez) and other millennials–I don’t think they have a lot to worry about (in regards to climate change),” Pakaluk said. “I think they should probably be a lot more worried about what our economy looks like without kids, because that actually does give me a moment of fear.”

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