Navy facilitates St. Anthony's Church Festival in Palaithivu

The annual festival of the St. Anthony’s Church located on the Palaithivu Island was held on a high note yesterday (23^rd March) with the attendance of a large number of devotees who came all the way from the districts of Jaffna and Kilinochchi.

Sri Lanka Navy made a major contribution for the successful organization and conduct of the event and those arrangements were carried out under the supervision of Commander Northern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Merril Wickramasinghe. It is reported that over 5,000 Catholic devotees from Jaffna, Delft, Gurunagr, Navanthurei, Passairur, Paleipadu, Iraneimathanagar, Pallikkuda, Mandathivu as well as Negombo and Mannar have attended this year’s church festival. The main mass was conducted by the Vicar General of the Jaffna Roman Catholic Diocese, Very Rev. Dr. P.J. Jebaratnam. Divisional Secretary of Punagari, Commander Northern Naval Area, Deputy Area Commander, senior officers, sailors, clergymen and women and a host of distinguished guests were also present on the occasion.

Under the directives of Commander Northern Naval Area and supervision of Commanding Officer SLNS Kanchadewa, Captain Thushara Udugama, several groups of naval personnel have been deployed to provide all facilities including transportation, sanitary, food and drink, medicine and infrastructure needed for the festival. Besides, Special SLN lifesaving teams were also deployed to ensure the safety of the devotees attending the annual festival.