Caritas Norway organized a pastoral solidarity visit to Sri Lanka with a delegation of 10 persons representing the Catholic Church of Oslo, Lutheran Church of Oslo, Interreligious Dialogue Forum of Oslo and Caritas Norway from 13th– 18th August 2019. The visit was jointly facilitated by Caritas Sri Lanka SEDEC and the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL).
The primary objective of the visit was to express their solidarity and prayers to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks and to meet Religious Leaders and local communities and to listen to their experiences in promoting interreligious harmony and peaceful coexistence in their localities.
The delegation also had a discussion with His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith on the current situation of the country in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, where His Eminence explained that the Catholic Bishop’s Conference has jointly made a statement for an independent and impartial inquiry on the incident which caused the death of more than 250 civilians and foreigners while causing injuries to several hundreds of people.
They also met the Speaker, Hon. Karu Jayasuriya, members of the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama and the leaders of other Christian Churches who are the members of NCCSL. The delegation was also on a visit to Kandy, Jaffna and Mannar and had meetings with Religious Leaders and Leaders of other Civil Society Groups.
Caritas Norway has been supporting the efforts of Caritas Sri Lanka to promote peace and reconciliation in collaboration with NORAD and the peace initiatives are implemented at all Dioceses in Sri Lanka.
