Regarding the present situation at Madhu and the August Madhu festival, we wish to inform the faithful and devotees of Our Lady of Madhu that the Sacred Statue of Our Lady of Madhu will be taken to its original place of Madhu Church and enthroned after due penitential and purification service. Since the Administrator will be residing at Madhu daily Eucharist service will take place at Madhu.
However we very much regret to inform the faithful and the devotees that we are not in a position to have the traditional August festival this time with the usual solemnities due to the following reasons:
01. Although the repairs to the Church have been done, some of the essential requirements
and infrastructure facilities are yet to be attended to in order to provide basic spiritual
and material facilities to a large number of pilgrims that customarily attend the August
Festival. Our Church staff took charge of Madhu only yesterday the 6th August, after 4
months of absence and we need time to bring back normalcy to Madhu.
02. The necessary requirements for making Madhu as a "No Conflict Zone" and the conditions mentioned in the appeal by the Bishop of Mannar and the CBCSL in order to guarantee the safety of the pilgrims, have not yet been properly agreed to either by the Government or by the LITE.
We do not expect therefore, pilgrims this time at Madhu and much less a many of them. We appeal to the people to continue to pray to Our Lady of Madhu for lasting peace in our county, so that through her intercession our people may be relieved from the sufferings and the challenges they face. |
