8.8.2008
The August festival of the Madhu Church
will not be held this year, but the statue of Our Lady of
Madhu will be taken to the Madhu Church and enthroned after
a penitential and purification service, Bishop of Mannar
Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph said yesterday.
Since
the administrator will be residing at Madhu, daily Eucharist
service will take place, the Bishop said.
Attributing
reasons for not holding this year’s August festival,
in a statement to the press, the Bishop said Church staff
took over the Church only on August 6 after four months
of absence and time is required to bring back normalcy to
the Church. Although repairs to the Church have been done,
some of the essential requirements are yet to be attended
to in order to provide basic spiritual and material facilities
to the large number of devotees who make the pilgrimage.
Another
reason for not holding this year’s festival the Bishop
said was that neither the LTTE nor the Government had yet
properly agreed to make the Madhu Church and its vicinity
a ‘No Conflict Zone’ on the lines mentioned
in the appeal by the Bishop of Mannar and the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of Sri Lanka.
The
Bishop appealed to the people to continue to pray for peace
in the country.
Courtesy
- The Island
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