Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church said on Sunday it had forgiven the suicide bombers behind the attacks that killed at least 279 people last Easter.
"We offered love to the enemies who tried to destroy us," Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told an Easter mass, broadcast from a TV studio because of the coronavirus pandemic. "We forgave them."
Mr Ranjith said that instead of retaliating, the nation's Catholic minority had contemplated Jesus's message of hope.
The April 21 Easter Sunday bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 279 people and wounding 593.
Last year, Mr Ranjith called for the government at the time to step down over its alleged failure to investigate an "international conspiracy" behind the attacks.
That government, of president Maithripala Sirisena, lost November's elections, with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's younger brother Gotabaya taking the reins.
Mr Sirisena initially blamed extremists for the bombings, but later accused international drug dealers, supposedly to destabilise his anti-narcotics drive.
The country's then-police chief and secretary to the ministry of defence have been charged with murder for allegedly not acting on intelligence about the attacks.
Police have arrested 135 people in connection with the bombings, blamed on the National Thowheeth Jama'ath extremist group.
They have yet to be charged.
Sri Lanka has been under curfew for most of the past three weeks. The Church is planning a private ceremony on April 21. the anniversary of the 2019 attacks, to commemorate the dead.
Dushyanthan Niroshan, a travel co-ordinator, said he took part in Mass at home but looked at it positively.
"It was more deep and meaningful," Mr Niroshan said. "This virus is a God-given opportunity to stop and think about our past lives."
Sri Lanka has confirmed 199 cases of the coronavirus, including seven deaths.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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UAE
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Takreem Awards winners 2021
Corporate Leadership: Carl Bistany (Lebanon)
Cultural Excellence: Hoor Al Qasimi (UAE)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Bkerzay (Lebanon)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Raya Ani (Iraq)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Women’s Programs Association (Lebanon)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Osamah Al Thini (Libya)
Excellence in Education: World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) (Qatar)
Outstanding Arab Woman: Balghis Badri (Sudan)
Scientific and Technological Achievement: Mohamed Slim Alouini (KSA)
Young Entrepreneur: Omar Itani (Lebanon)
Lifetime Achievement: Suad Al Amiry (Palestine)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The finalists
Player of the Century, 2001-2020: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Ronaldinho
Coach of the Century, 2001-2020: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Jose Mourinho (Tottenham Hotspur), Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid), Sir Alex Ferguson
Club of the Century, 2001-2020: Al Ahly (Egypt), Bayern Munich (Germany), Barcelona (Spain), Real Madrid (Spain)
Player of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Club of the Year: Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Real Madrid
Coach of the Year: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta), Hans-Dieter Flick (Bayern Munich), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Agent of the Century, 2001-2020: Giovanni Branchini, Jorge Mendes, Mino Raiola
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
