The violence also led to the assassination, in a bomb attack, of President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1995, Archbishop Fernando has headed the Colombo archdiocese that accounts for nearly half of the Christian population of Sri Lanka for the last 22 years. While the 1.3 million Christians account for 7 percent of Sri Lanka's population, the Colombo diocese alone has over 600,000 Catholics. They have no animosity. But, in our churches, services are held in Sinhala and Tamil besides English.
Religions are still important in our country.
Used with permission.