Jasmitha to be blessed by Pope

JASMITHA Marharajasingh, the courageous young Sri Lankan girl from Paphos who survived a brain tumour and heart surgery, is to be blessed by Pope Benedict  during his visit tomorrow.
Jasmitha’s’ mother Sathiye told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “I received a telephone call from the Vatican and the embassy in Nicosia to tell me that the Pope would be blessing Jasmitha personally.”
According to Sathiye, Kathleen Houliotis, a former teacher of her daughter, and her godmother, started the fundraising campaign to get Jasmitha the life-saving treatment, asked the child’s religious instruction teacher to write to the Pope to request his blessing.
“Jasmitha knows all about the Pope and has been learning her catechism at class every Saturday morning,” said Sathiye.
Jasmitha, who celebrated her tenth birthday last month, underwent 14 months of gruelling treatment including a ten-hour brain surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and heart surgery, with a remarkable attitude that prompted doctors in Israel to christen her ‘The Angel of Cyprus’.
The young girl’s treatment cost around $200,000, which was raised from donations from Cyprus and all over the world.
Jasmitha’s mother spoke of the numbing sense of shock when she first realised how dreadfully ill her daughter was. “But we had so much help and support from everyone. She is a very special girl,” she said.
Jasmitha is now a bright, intelligent ten-year-old, with an infectious giggle and an aura of inner strength and understanding, which is hard to define but immediately appealling.
She attends the International school of Paphos, and was awarded a full scholarship, which will last for the duration of her education at the school.
“Jasmitha knows that we are going to see the Pope, but she thinks she will be standing with all the other people. I’m waiting until I have another telephone call from the Vatican to explain to us the details of what will happen and then I will tell her,” her mother said. “Jasmitha is already excited about going to Ayia Kyriaki to see the Pope, it is going to be wonderful to tell her that she will actually be blessed by him.’
The family has been told they will be allowed inside the church where the Pope will perform the blessing. “I don’t think she will sleep at all at night, she will be far too excited,” said her mother. Jasmitha was christened at Ayia Kyriaki church in March last year.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.