Victims of 2019 Sri Lankan Easter bombing honored by Vatican

The Catholics killed in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Colombo, Sri Lanka, are now on a list of "Witnesses of the Faith," Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith announced at an event marking the anniversary of the attacks.

Ranjith is the archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a small island country located off the coast of India.

On April 21, 2019, 167 Catholics attending Easter Sunday Mass were among the 269 people killed in a series of suicide bombings. The first two attacks were at Catholic churches, followed by a blast at an Evangelical church, and then three separate luxury hotels.

Of the 269 victims, 115 were killed at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, the second of the day's nine bombings. That figure included 27 children.

The coordinated attacks took place in two waves, with the first six attacks occurring between 8:25 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. That afternoon, two more bombs were detonated as the police investigated that morning's attacks. The attackers claimed allegiance with the Islamic State.

On July 5, 2023, Pope Francis created the “Commission of the New Martyrs -- Witnesses of the Faith."

The goal of the list is to "draw up a catalogue of all those who have shed their blood to confess Christ and bear witness to His Gospel," said Pope Francis, focusing on the first 25 years of the 21st century.

Martyrs, he said, "are witnesses of the hope that comes from faith in Christ and incites to true charity. Hope keeps alive the deep conviction that good is stronger than evil, because God in Christ conquered sin and death."

Last year, on the fifth anniversary of the attacks, Cardinal Ranjith received a petition requesting that the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints open a cause to evaluate the martyrdom of the victims of the massacre.

Five years must ordinarily pass from the person’s death in order for a cause to be opened.