Aid to the Church in Need: Sri Lanka: Restoring the church of Aitiyamalai

Sri Lanka: Restoring the church of Aitiyamalai

Posted by Project of the Week on 10/3/2009, 10:30 am
Board Administrator

SRI LANKA - Restoring the church of Aitiyamalai

It is a tragedy to be forced to flee from your home – as the people of the region of Aitiyamalai in the North of Sri Lanka have experienced first-hand, following the renewed flare-up of violence between Tamil separatist rebels and Sri Lankan government troops. But it is still worse when you return, full of hope, only to find everything that you once lived for reduced to ruins. The soldiers have done their work well, plundering, burning destroying everything.

(The salvaged statutes of the saints)

During the attacks the Catholic parish church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Aitiyamalai was not spared either. It now looks like a ruin – the roof was partly burnt out, the statutes and crucifixes were hurled about the interior, only later being gathered up again by the horrified faithful. The sacred objects suffered the same fate as the traumatised souls.

But the people have still retained their strength, a strength drawn from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – a sign of hope in a desecrated place, a sign that the people understand. So many people came to Mass on the recent feast of their patron saint that a vast number had to sit outside the church.

(Holy Mass in the ransacked church)

The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has already helped them once, but the damage is so extensive more help is needed. They now want the exterior too to look like a place of hope and salvation. ACN has promised them $24,000 so that this sacred space, this place of healing, need no longer look like a place of horrors.

To help this cause please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org