By Dilrukshi Handunnetti
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
Pope Francis will be welcomed to Sri Lanka by the country's new President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday, only days after he was voted in with a mandate to promote reconciliation between the island's ethnic and religious groups.
The pope is scheduled to meet the new president and attend an interfaith conference that will include religious leaders from Sri Lanka’s Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim communities.
He will also fly to the island's formerly war-torn north -- where for three decades Tamil Tiger rebels fought for a separate homeland -- to pay homage at the Sacred Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, a place of Christian workshop that is hugely popular among both Tamil and Sinhala communities, and hence viewed a symbol of unity.
Catholics form 7 percent of Sri Lanka's population and extend across both the Sinhala and Tamil ethnicities, the largest two on the island.
Throughout Sri Lanka churches were given new coats of paint and decorated to welcome Pope Francis, who will be travelling from to Colombo from the Phillipines. In preparation, flags in the papal colours of yellow and white were hoisted in Colombo, alongside the national flag.
A special papal mass will be held on Wednesday at the Galle Face Green in Colombo, where the Argentinean pontiff will canonize Sri Lanka's first saint, Joseph Vaz. The 17th Century priest revived the Catholic faith in the country amid persecution by Dutch colonial rulers.
"This second trip to Asia (...) is a message in itself for this great continent. It is necessary to have the pope return to this important part of the world," Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
In recent years the island nation has experienced increasing religious violence, with mosques and churches being attacked by extremist Sinhala Buddhist groups.
