Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church said on Sunday it had forgiven the suicide bombers behind the attacks that killed at least 279 people last Easter.
"We offered love to the enemies who tried to destroy us," Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told an Easter mass, broadcast from a TV studio because of the coronavirus pandemic. "We forgave them."
Mr Ranjith said that instead of retaliating, the nation's Catholic minority had contemplated Jesus's message of hope.
The April 21 Easter Sunday bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 279 people and wounding 593.
Last year, Mr Ranjith called for the government at the time to step down over its alleged failure to investigate an "international conspiracy" behind the attacks.
That government, of president Maithripala Sirisena, lost November's elections, with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's younger brother Gotabaya taking the reins.
Mr Sirisena initially blamed extremists for the bombings, but later accused international drug dealers, supposedly to destabilise his anti-narcotics drive.
The country's then-police chief and secretary to the ministry of defence have been charged with murder for allegedly not acting on intelligence about the attacks.
Police have arrested 135 people in connection with the bombings, blamed on the National Thowheeth Jama'ath extremist group.
They have yet to be charged.
Sri Lanka has been under curfew for most of the past three weeks. The Church is planning a private ceremony on April 21. the anniversary of the 2019 attacks, to commemorate the dead.
Dushyanthan Niroshan, a travel co-ordinator, said he took part in Mass at home but looked at it positively.
"It was more deep and meaningful," Mr Niroshan said. "This virus is a God-given opportunity to stop and think about our past lives."
Sri Lanka has confirmed 199 cases of the coronavirus, including seven deaths.
