Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his solidarity with the Sri Lankan people and voiced his horror at a series of explosions at churches and hotels that killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds during Easter observed by the Catholic Church.
His Holiness unambiguously condemned all acts of terror, as well as any act of hatred, violence and fundamentalism wherever they come from.
The Patriarch called on everyone ‘to work, through dialogue and in a spirit of mutual respect, to preserve the good of peaceful coexistence and co-operation.’
‘The Holy and Great Church of Christ prays for the rest of the souls of the victims and expresses heartfelt condolences to their families, while wishing courage and a quick recovery to the injured,’ reads a statement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
At the same time, the Patriarchate of Constantinople expressed their ‘sympathy with and support for the local Roman Catholic Church, the Government and the people of Sri Lanka.’
The Ecumenical Patriarch contacted the Metropolitan of Singapore, Constantine, and asked him to convey the above message of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Roman Catholic Community, the authorities and the Sri Lankan people as a whole.
In a message sent on Sunday, the Patriarch of Romania denounced the ‘cruelest expression of dehumanizing violence and alienation from God’ of the Sri Lanka attacks.
Photography courtesy of the Basilica.ro Archive
