[8] On 15 November 1505 a Portuguese fleet commanded by Lourenço de Almeida, having been driven by a storm to the shores of Sri Lanka, landed in Colombo.

Over the next few centuries, Portuguese, Dutch, and Irish missionaries spread the religion in Sri Lanka, most notably on the western and northwestern coast, where in some places Catholics are half the population.

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide bombings.

[12] The attack deeply shook the Christian and Catholic community of Sri Lanka, and Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith spent the next years asking for clarity and answers regarding responsibility for the bombings, and justice for the victims.

Ranjith has been very critical of the investigations, alleging possible collusion of the Government with the attackers, citing a Parliamentary Select Committee report to this effect.