Thannamunai, Sri Lanka, May 1, 2019 / 12:14 am (CNA).- As most Catholic churches remain closed across Sri Lanka, following the Easter bombings that claimed more than 250 lives, one parish in a small eastern village celebrated the ordination of a new pr… […]
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Apr 30, 2019 / 12:54 pm (CNA).- When Francisco Javier Olivera was born, his mother offered him to the Virgin Mary, praying that he would become a missionary in Asia.
Olivera’s mother told him about the consecration after he was ordained a priest in Japan 22 years ago. Since then, he has served as a missionary, not only in Japan, but in China and Mongolia as well.
Fr. Olivera was born in Salamanca, Spain, 47 years ago. He is a diocesan priest working with the Neocatechumenal Way and has been a missionary for 28 years.
In an interview with Religión En Libertad, Olivera said his priestly and missionary vocation grew “little by little,” influenced by a series of missionaries and catechists who stayed at his family’s house.
He also believes that his mother’s prayers made a difference.
“She offered me to Our Lady to be a missionary in Asia. I didn’t know that, she told me in Takamatsu, [Japan] when the celebration of my ordination was over,” the priest said.
The priest said that Japan has been his toughest assignment, because there “you felt more loneliness, even being in a parish,” while China impressed him very much since “the people have a lot of curiosity and if there were freedom it would be amazing.”
After four years of living in Mongolia, he said he still finds the assignment “quite difficult because of the language, the cold, the pollution, the culture, and especially because of all the legal impediments we have, which are many.”
The Catholic Church arrived in Mongolia in 1992, when three missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were sent to the country following the arrival of democracy and safeguards for religious liberty in the country’s constitution.
Later, other congregations of priests and religious arrived, as well as lay missionaries. Today, there are just over 1,200 Catholics.
“The parishes are young in every respect, many young people are being drawn to the Church…We already have the first Mongolian priest ordained two years ago and now we have a deacon,” Olivera explained.
Olivera works with a team of lay missionaries and families in the Neocatechumenal Way. He celebrates Mass each day, studies Mongolian, and teaches Japanese at a company where he tries to “take advantage of the occasion to talk about God, especially through songs.” He also teaches biblical catechesis at the local parish.
Conversions are not frequent, he said, but he has seen people “drawing close to the Church, especially through all the various social works being carried out – assistance to the impoverished elderly, poor and abandoned children.”
“Without a doubt, the love the missionaries are showing is gradually attracting the [locals].”
As an example, the priest recalled a young man who “was searching for God in beauty.” One day, the man entered the Catholic cathedral, where he saw a group of elderly women praying. Moved by the beauty of the scene, the young man decided to be baptized.
“Some people think that this life is crazy, but I desire it for myself,” Olivera told Religión en Libertad. “If it’s getting a bit crazier, better yet, the more we see that it is God who is behind it.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 29, 2019 / 05:48 pm (CNA).- One week after the Sri Lanka Easter bombings, authorities continue to seek those responsible for the violence, while enacting new security measures throughout the country.
With police urging caution … […]
Kathmandu, Nepal, Apr 27, 2019 / 04:31 pm (CNA).- Reports of five Christians being arrested on faith-related charges in Nepal this week have sparked international concern and calls for changes to the country’s strict anti-conversion laws.
&ldquo… […]
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 26, 2019 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- The Sri Lanka chief of police resigned this week after bombings left dead more than 200 Christians on Easter morning. An official at the defense ministry has also stepped down.
Pujith Jayasundara ste… […]
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 24, 2019 / 04:36 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Colombo says that government officials in Sri Lanka should be fired for failing to act on tips that terrorists attacks were imminent in the hours preceding Easter Sunday bombings in the country.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable behavior on the part of these high officials of the government, including some of the ministry officials,” Cardinal Malcom Ranjith said April 23 in response to reports that Sri Lankan officials did not pass on credible warnings in the hours before the April 21 attacks, including some that specified that Catholic Church would be targeted.
Warnings reportedly came from the Indian government and from other intelligence sources, and said directly that churches could be targeted by Islamist terrorist attacks. Government officials have promised an inquiry into those reports.
“These kind of officials should be immediately sacked, removed from these positions. And human beings who have a feeling for the needs of others and for the people must be inserted into these positions,” Ranjith said.
The cardinal added that if he had been warned that Catholic Churches could be bombed on Easter Sunday, he would have cancelled Sunday Masses, “because, for me, the most important thing is human life. Human beings, they are our treasure.”
“I would have cancelled even the holy week itself,” Ranjith told Radio Canada.
Thousands of Catholics attended Easter Sunday Masses at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo and St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church in Negombo, both of which were bombed at 8:45 a.m. Easter morning, as was the evangelical Zion Church in Batticaolo, on Sri Lanka’s east coast.
One the same morning, three hotels were bombed, as were other locations across the country.
At least 359 people are dead.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and more than 60 Sri Lankans have been arrested or questioned.
Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has asked Hemasari Ferando, one of the country’s defense ministers, to resign, along with police Inspector General Pujith Jayasundara. Both are accused of mishandling intelligence reports.
Ranjith old EWTN News Nightly that the local Catholic community has suffered tremendously because of the horrible massacre on Easter Sunday.
“We lost so many valuable lives in both churches … a huge amount of people,” Cardinal Ranjith told EWTN News Nightly April 22.
The Sri Lankan cardinal said that he rushed to St. Anthony’s shrine as soon as he heard of the attack Sunday morning, but the police did not allow him to enter because they suspected that more bombs could be inside the church.
“From the outside I saw a lot of devastation outside the church,” Ranjith said. “When I saw so many bodies, I was completely moved and disturbed.”
The Knights of Columbus have pledged $100,000 in aid for victims of the Sri Lankan attacks to help Cardinal Ranjith rebuild and repair his Christian community.
Pope Francis renewed his prayers for the victims in Sri Lanka and appealed for international support during his Regina Coeli address Monday.
“I pray for the many victims and wounded, and I ask everyone not to hesitate to offer this dear nation all the help that is necessary,” the pope said April 22.
“I also hope that everyone condemns these acts of terrorism, inhuman acts, never justifiable,” he said.
Manila, Philippines, Apr 24, 2019 / 04:09 pm (CNA).- Catholic leaders have offered prayers for the Philippines after two earthquakes struck the region this week.
A magnitude-6.1 earthquake hit the nation’s largest and most populous island of Luz… […]
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 22, 2019 / 08:03 am (CNA).- Police in Sri Lanka have detonated a suspicious package near St. Anthony’s church in Colombo on Easter Monday.
Local media reported scenes of panic and confusion April 22, as crowds fled the ar… […]
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 21, 2019 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- Religious and civil leaders have responded with condolences, prayer, and calls for justice after several explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds… […]
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 21, 2019 / 01:45 am (CNA).- At least 100 people were killed in explosions Easter morning, detonated in churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. Hundreds more are reportedly injured.
At 8:45 a.m., explosions were detonated during Easter Mass at churches in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and in Negombo, a city 20 miles to its north. At the same time, a bomb exploded at a service at the evangelical Zion Church in Batticaolo, on Sri Lanka’s east coast.
St. Anthony’s Shrine was the Catholic church targeted in Colombo, and St. Sebastian’s is the Catholic parish in Negombo.
Pews were shattered by the blast at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, and floors and ceilings were covered in blood. The shrine is the most well-known Church in Sri Lanka, and is designated the country’s national shrine. The first chapel on the Church property was built during Sri Lanka’s Dutch colonial period, when Catholicism was mostly forbidden on the island.
There were also explosions Sunday morning at three luxury hotels in Colombo.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, called on Sri Lankans to remain “united and strong” in the face of “cowardly attacks on our people today.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In recent weeks, there has been concern that Sri Lankans who had been part of the Islamic State could become a threat, as they have begun returning to the country from the Middle East, according to the BBC.
The country has been plagued with periodic violence since its 26-year civil war concluded in 2009.
Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal; its population is more than 21 million. More than 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhists, roughly 13% are Hindus, almost 10% are Muslims, and fewer than 8% are Christians. There are 1.5 million Catholics in the country, constituting the overwhelming majority of the Sri Lanka’s Christians.
In a January 2015 visit to the country, Pope Francis urged peace and reconciliation among the country’s rival factions.
“In this difficult effort to forgive and find peace, Mary is always here to encourage us, to guide us, to lead us,” the pope said Jan. 14, 2015, at the Our Lady of Madhu shrine in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district.
“Just as she forgave her son’s killers at the foot of his cross, then held his lifeless body in her hands, so now she wants to guide Sri Lankans to greater reconciliation, so that the balm of God’s pardon and mercy may bring true healing to all.”
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