MADHU, sri lanka — Pope Francis traveled to the jungles of war-torn northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday for a show of solidarity with the victims of the country’s 25-year civil war and to urge Sri Lankans as a whole to forgive one another “for all the evil which this land has known.”
An estimated 300,000 people waving the white and yellow Vatican flags welcomed Francis to the Our Lady of Madhu shrine, which is revered by Sinhalese and Tamil Catholics, as well as people of other faiths.
No pope has traveled to the northern Tamil region. Francis’ visit to Sri Lanka’s holiest Christian shrine provided a poignant backdrop for his appeal that Sri Lankans not only reconcile but forgive one another for the sake of peace.
“Only when we come to understand, in the light of the cross, the evil we are capable of and have even been a part of, can we experience true remorse and true repentance,” he said after setting free a dove in a sign of peace. “Only then can we receive the grace to approach one another in true contrition, offering and seeking true forgiveness.”
Tamil Tiger rebels fought a 25-year civil war to demand an independent Tamil nation after decades of perceived discrimination by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority.
U.N. estimates say 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed, although other reports suggest the toll could be much higher. The government finally crushed the rebels in a bloody series of offensives that ended in 2009.
During the war, the Madhu shrine, which originally built in the 16th century by Catholics fleeing persecution in the northern Jaffna kingdom, again became a place of refuge with thousands.
“I believe the holy father’s visit will be a remedy to our pain,” said Mary Conseeta, 22, who lost two brothers, ages 13 and 15, in 2008 when the school bus they were traveling home in exploded in a roadside blast blamed on Sri Lankan forces. She escaped with a wounded leg.
It was the pope’s second major call for reconciliation of the day: He also celebrated a Mass before a half-million people in Colombo’s Galle Face Green to canonize the Rev. Joseph Vaz as Sri Lanka’s first saint. Vaz was a 17th century Indian missionary who revived the faith in Sri Lanka during a time of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch colonists, who were Protestant Calvinists.
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Pope visits Buddhist temple, sees relics in rare honor • COLOMBO, sri lanka — Pope Francis on Wednesday became the second pope to visit a Buddhist temple, changing his schedule at the last minute to pay his respects at an important place of worship in Sri Lanka’s capital and to witness a key ritual for Buddhists: the opening of a casket of relics of two important disciples of the Buddha.
Francis listened respectfully as Buddhist monks chanted and prayed while opening the stupa, or casket, containing relics in the Agrashravaka Temple, the Vatican said.
Usually, the relics are put on display only once a year, and Buddhists from around Sri Lanka line up for days to pay homage to them because it is such a rare privilege.
The head monk at the temple, Banagala Upatissa, said that allowing the pope to witness the relics “is the highest honor and respect we can offer to his holiness.”
St. John Paul II visited a Buddhist temple during a 1984 visit to Thailand. The Associated Press
