Deadly Bombings on Easter Sunday

At right, nuns, clergymen and police officials look over the scene after a bombing at St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka on April 21. On Easter Monday, Pope Francis led thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square in praying for those who died or were injured in bomb blasts the previous day in Sri Lanka. Pope Francis had already condemned the bombings after celebrating Easter morning Mass. The next day, after Sri Lankan officials reported 290 confirmed deaths from the eight blasts at churches and hotels in three cities, the pope told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the “Regina Coeli” prayer, “I want to again express my spiritual and paternal closeness to the people of Sri Lanka.”