Over 9,500 Sri Lankan police and military officers were deployed to protect nearly 1,900 churches on March 31, five years after the 2019 Easter bombings killed 269 people and injured over 500.
In their Easter message, the nation’s bishops called for a “major change” in the nation’s system of governance, amid what the bishops described as “a severe social, political and economical crisis.”
Buddhism is the official religion of the South Asian nation of 23.3 million (map). Sri Lanka is 68% Buddhist, 13% Hindu, 9% Muslim, and 9% Christian. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2015.