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CHAPTER 17

Healing the battered hearts of Katuwapitiya

hey gathered in their Sunday best after 40 days of prayer at the culmination of Families had been torn asunder – parents were dead leaving orphaned children behind;
TLent to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, considered the holiest festival a spouse was dead leaving families rudderless; children were dead with distraught
in the Christian calendar. parents left to ponder a future without joy; and in some cases a parent was left alive
with the spouse and children all dead.
The whole village of Katuwapitiya, the men, women and children, had laboured for
this day – having endured a time of reflection, sacrifice and preparation for Easter. The stories of the tragedy were similar but very personal as well. Every by-lane in
They had cleaned their beautiful St. Sebastian’s Church and decorated it…..and the Katuwapitiya had been affected. It was a village trying to cope with its dead and
sprinkling of non-Christian families in the village would also step out of their homes to injured.
see the procession pass by at the conclusion of the service.
As Katuwapitiya buried its dead and hoped against hope that the injured survivors
On April 21 , Easter Sunday 2019, it was not meant to be. As they bowed their heads in would come home alive, many promises were made but few were delivered.
st
final prayer, this sacred site became the target of a suicide bomber. Where there should
have been joy and laughter, first there was a blast, a shower not of blessings but tiles In Colombo, the Hemas Group met promptly to see what it could do to alleviate
raining down like shrapnel, then deathly silence followed by lamentation and howls of the suffering of the blasted and battered people of Katuwapitiya. Approaching
disbelief, shock and sorrow. Why, oh why? the Ministry of Health, the Hemas team offered psychological aid for the victims,
which was welcomed by the officials.
It was not only at Katuwapitiya that the lamentation was heard. It echoed and re-
echoed at a few other churches and 5-star hotels which had also been targeted, as a The Hemas team then visited mourning Katuwapitiya with its numerous funeral
stunned Sri Lanka attempted to get its bearings as to what had hit the nation. processions and met the Director of the Archdiocesan Family Apostolate and
Coordinator of the National Family Apostolate, Rev. Fr. Claude Nonis, offering their
The white, yellow and green arches at the Katuwapitiya church’s forlorn altar were still services.
standing but the congregational area lay in shambles. The pews were overturned on
blood-splattered floors. Many of the devotees were dead and those who had survived “Emotions were running high,” says the Executive Director of the Hemas Outreach
were severely injured and scarred both physically and psychologically. Foundation, Shiromi Masakorala, as they saw firsthand the ground situation.

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