Sri Lanka’s Catholic cardinal received
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Catholic cardinal received «foreign information» that attempts would be made this week to attack a church and another church institution, according to a letter he sent Thursday to church officials that later appeared on social media.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo and an outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan government’s apparent failure to act on Indian government intelligence ahead of the Easter attacks, said in the letter that he was closing churches and Catholic schools throughout Sri Lanka and canceling public congregations for Mass «until further notice.»
«For your own good, we have decided to close down those institutions,» he wrote.
Church spokesman Rev. Edmund Thilakaratne in an interview confirmed the authenticity of the letter to The Associated Press but declined to disclose further details, including the source of the foreign information.
An Islamic State-linked group of Sri Lankan nationals carried out coordinated suicide bombings on Easter Sunday at three churches and three luxury hotels on the island that killed 257 people.
Earlier Thursday, Tillakaratne had said that Ranjith canceled all Sunday services for a second week in the diocese based on the latest security reports.
Last week, Muslims were told to stay home for Friday prayers and all of Sri Lanka’s Catholic churches were closed. Instead of the usual Sunday Mass, Ranjith delivered a homily before clergy and national leaders at his residence that was broadcast on television.
