Sri Lanka allows pilgrims at Catholic shrine

Sri Lanka allows pilgrims at Catholic shrine

MADHU (SRI LANKA): Sri Lanka has lifted a blockade on the island's holiest Roman Catholic shrine and will allow pilgrims to hold their annual feast there Saturday as a sign that the north was returning to normal after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.But while thousands gathered in northwestern Sri Lanka for the annual feast of Our Lady of Madhu, the nearby villages stood empty, their residents stuck in displacement camps along with nearly 300,000 other Tamil civilians who escaped from the war zone.According to military counts, some 51,000 people had gathered in the area 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of the capital Colombo by Friday and about 100,000 people were expected to take part in the feast on the church grounds.The church is revered by Sri Lanka's Christians — both minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese — who make up about 7 percent of the population. Our Lady of Madhu, a statue of the Virgin Mary that stands over the altar inside, is believed to hold miraculous healing powers.This year's pilgrims are mostly Sinhalese from the south who arrived in cars, buses and trucks and camped out in the shrubs around the shrine. The church, which was located inside the rebels' former shadow state in the north, had once attracted as many as half a million pilgrims for the festival, but only 500 were allowed to attend last year because of the war."We are happy that we were able to come here without any trouble," said 30-year-old fisherman Ravindra Kumar from the western coastal town of Negombo. "There were many problems before. We are thankful to the soldiers for retaking this area."