SLA blocks Maundy Thursday prayer in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 00:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stopped hundreds of Catholic worshippers assembled at St James Church in Sillalai Parish in Jaffna district from celebrating Maundy Thursday, and ordered them to leave the Parish for not obtaining prior permission to hold the ceremony, civil society sources in Jaffna said.

Rev.Fr. Roshan, the Parish Priest and the Secretary to the Jaffna Bishop, had finished conducting a special sacrament when SLA soldiers who came in four motorbikes ordered to halt the event.

They also ordered the Parish priest to call in at the SLA camp on Friday morning for an inquiry.

Civil society leaders expressed concern on the arbitrary intrusion of Sri Lanka military in violating people's religious freedom,

In the Christian calendar, Maundy Thursday, also called Holy Thursday and, in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, Great Thursday, is the feast or holy day on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. It is followed by Good Friday.