Archbishop Attallah Hanna meets the Sri Lankan Representative

2011-09-21

Attallah Hanna, met the Representative of Sri Lanka in the Palestinian territories at Movenpick Hotel in Ramallah to discuss the invitation to His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith to visit Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Archbishop Attallah Hanna stated that he will coordinate with authorities and extend the invitation and he also said that such a visit would be a great inspiration for the Christian community in Palestine and for friendship between Palestine and Sri Lanka.

They also discussed the situation in Jerusalem and the difficulties faced by the Christians in worshipping at the churches in Jerusalem and Bethlehem due to restrictions in entering these cities through security check points.

This is apart from the suffering under general occupation.

Dr. Jayasinghe explained about the religious freedom prevailing in Sri Lanka and the state patronage for all religions. He especially mentioned about the Shrine of our lady of Madhu, the Roman Catholic Marian Shrine in Manner district of Sri Lanka with a history of over 400 years.

When the sacred statue lady of Madhu was forcibly removed to the jungles by the terrorists of Tamil Elam (LTTE) there was worldwide protests and even the catholic community in Bethlehem joined by protesting and appealing to terrorists to return the statue. The appeal was signed by many leading Catholics in Bethlehem. Now the devotes in Sri Lanka go in thousands to worship at the Shrine of our Lady Madhu.

-Asian Tribune –

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