Free detained Tamils for Marian feast, bishop urges

The bishop of Mannar in the country’s Northern Province has called for displaced Tamils to be allowed to leave government camps to celebrate the feast of the revered Madhu Marian shrine.

“Allow all to the shrine, including refugees detained in camps,” Bishop Rayappu Joseph demanded on July 2, speaking to reporters in Mannar the day another religious celebration at Madhu was cancelled for security reasons.
Catholics and people of other religions venerate the 400-year-old Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, which served during the civil war as a "safe haven" for people fleeing fighting but was also caught in crossfire between Tamil rebels and government troops.The government recently announced it would allow the celebration of the Assumption, a major Marian feast, on Aug. 15. The bishop, however, maintains his diocese cannot make necessary arrangements unless the government lifts restrictions.
“More than 300,000 Tamils now held in welfare centers would be denied the opportunity to attend the feast day,” he said. The government has not allowed them to leave since it announced the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and end of the 25-year civil war in mid-May.
Several of the camps are only 40 kilometers from the shrine.
Bishop Joseph is also calling for people from the south to have easier access to the shrine, 220 kilometers north of Colombo, than they did last year. The Church wants the government to allow vehicles coming to Madhu to proceed without being stopped.
“All vehicles should be allowed to proceed,” the Tamil prelate said.
Last year about 540 pilgrims were allowed to attend the August feast, but only by traveling on military-guarded buses. They were forced to leave the shrine on the same evening.
Under current arrangements, private vehicles will again not be allowed to go to the shrine area due to security concerns.
“It will be happy news if all devotees are allowed to the feast,” Father Surenthiran Ravel Leenus, Bishop Joseph's secretary, told UCA News.
He especially hopes that more than 30,000 people who fled the shrine area, including Church workers, will be released from the camps before the feast.
“It is an opportunity to reunite family members,” the priest said.
Government troops wrested the area surrounding the shrine from Tamil rebels last year but officially returned control of the shrine to the Mannar bishop in early August.
However, the military says it is still clearing mines from the surrounding area and has yet to open the road to the shrine.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs expects nearly 400,000 devotees to travel to Madhu for the August festival and security in the area has been strengthened.
Father Desmond Fred Kulas, administrator of the Madhu shrine, told UCA News he is eagerly anticipating the August feast despite cancellation the celebration on July 2, the traditional date of the feast of the Visitation. This feast commemorating Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant at the time with John the Baptist, was moved to May 31 in the new liturgical calendar that Pope Paul VI introduced in 1969. (Source: UCAN)