Islamic Outreach, Part CX

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Meanwhile...

 

NY Times photo

Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 21, 2019 / 01:45 am (CNA).- At least 200 people were killed in explosions Easter morning, detonated in churches other sites 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.



 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lankan officials believe an Islamist militant group was behind the Easter morning attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed at least 290 people and wounded another 500, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told reporters.
Officials had said previously that another country had warned that the group, known as National Thowheed Jamath, was planning attacks in Sri Lanka, but the warnings weren’t specific enough to effectively act on and didn’t include hotels or tourist sites as potential targets.