AMRY handed over Madhu Church to trustees

Sri Lanka Army opened Madhu Church for its trustees in this evening. Area Army commander and senior officials along with the trustees of the Madhu church attended this simple ceremony , our reports said.
The government said liberation of the Madhu Church precincts from the terrorists marks a watershed in the Northern war theatre. The troops trod with utmost caution in the sacred area, honoring a No Fire Zone arrangement, which the LTTE unfortunately violated. The soldiers ensured that no harm was caused to the Sacred Shrine, renowned throughout Asia.

The Army faced a formidable task vis-a-vis Madhu. The LTTE had heavily mined the area. The slightest propaganda by the troops and any damage to the Church would have sent the LTTE misinformation network into hyper drive. It is to their credit that they managed this feat without literally falling into the traps laid by the LTTE, physically and metaphorically.

One unsolved mystery is why the Madhu Church authorities conveyed the Scared Statue of Our Lady of Madhu to another location in an LTTE-dominated area, in spite of repeated pleas by the clergy and laity to convey the statue to a Government-controlled area, so that Christians from both Sinhala and Tamil communities could pay homage to it.
Now that the Forces, and hence the Government, have regained the Madhu Church area, Christians can heave a collective sigh of relief. With the impending liberation of the entire North, pilgrims of all over Sri Lanka will soon be able to venerate this famous shrine in a free and peaceful atmosphere.