Parish Council of All Saints Church Borella released a media statement over the hand grenade incident. On January 11th, Hand Grenade was found at the Church premises by Police STF and later 3 suspects arrested. Parish Council strongly condemn the cowardly and irrational acts of those who have taken steps to plant a hand grenade in the Church. Parish Council express their deep displeasure concerning the manner in which the investigations are proceeding with regards to the event.

Statement – We the members of the Parish Council of All Saints’ Church, Borella wish to clearly state that we are the Council in this Parish which is officially setup to assist in the Church’s apostolic work, and sanctification in the fields of charity, social relations and all other aspects (vide Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People 26, Vatican II Council).

Accordingly, we are directly responsible to manage and oversee the affairs of this Parish. We take this opportunity to very strongly condemn the cowardly and irrational acts of those who have taken steps to plant a hand grenade in our Parish Church on the 11th January 2022 on behalf of our entire Parish Community.

We state that these acts committed in such a Place of Worship in which multitudes of people have worshipped, found solace and peace since the 18th Century onwards violates the very fundamental rights of the members in our Parish Community and impacts the very roots of the national security of all the citizens of this nation.

Furthermore, we would also take this opportunity to express our deep displeasure concerning the manner in which the investigations are proceeding with regards to this event, since as demonstrated in the media reports recently the Police have proceeded to arrest suspects even prior to viewing any CCTV footage and thereafter produce them before Court without even properly taking into consideration all of the CCTV footage evidence available in this instance.

Moreover the question as to why the Police were insisting the CCTV footage only after 3 pm on the 11th January 2022 is a great mystery when in fact on His Eminence, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith’s initiative very relevant evidence surfaced on viewing the CCTV footage of the morning of the 11th January 2022.

Therefore taking all this into consideration we very firmly appeal to all the relevant authorities and to the Government to take these matters very seriously and handle these investigations with all reasonable skill, care and due diligence.