Sri Lanka Priests conduct Marian celebrations in camps

(August 15, 2009) Unable to travel to the popular Madhu Marian shrine to mark the feast of the Assumption, priests, Church workers and laypeople detained in camps in the north are conducting their own Masses and prayers. With the decades-long civil war with Tamil Tiger separatists now over, about 500,000 pilgrims are expected to venture north and descend on the island's most popular Catholic shrine for the Marian feast on August 15. His Grace Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo will preside at the Solemn Festive Mass at Madhu and Archbishop. Oswald Gomis will preside at the Solemn Vespers and impart the Benediction. The government has opened the road to the Our Lady of Madhu shrine, located in Mannar diocese, and often considered Sri Lanka's answer to Lourdes and Fatima. A special security program is also being implemented. Sri Lanka railway has also introduced special train services for pilgrims going to the shrine, some 200 kilometres to the north of Colombo. Already, there are hundreds of vehicles lining up at military checkpoints on the highway to Madhu, according to media reports. However, Catholics detained in refugee camps in the north, who are unable to attend celebrations at the shrine, are conducting their own novenas, said Father Celestine Mascringe, parish priest of St. Anthony's Church in Cheddikulam. In other camps, people are celebrating the Marian feast under the trees with priests conduct evening prayers, Father Mascringe said. When the war ended in May 2009, 300,000 Tamil civilians found themselves detained in displacement camps as the government sought to weed out fleeing Tiger rebels. Thirty thousand Catholics, including church choirs and altar servers from the Madhu shrine area, are among them.