 In a statement, reported in the Sun on January 8, the then Bishop Marcus Fernando, Bishop of Chillaw and the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka, said that reports reaching the Catholic Bishops' Conference indicated that the shooting was an unprovoked Sri Lankan Army attack on the church and the incumbent.On January 8, Thomas Savundranayagam, the then Bishop of Mannar, in a statement to the strongly protested the insinuation by the government that arms were found in the church and he also accused the military of complicity in the murder of Father Mary Bastian.He was quoted as saying

Amnesty International, the London human rights watchdog, in its report stated,

The people of Vankalai later erected a statue of Rev Fr Mary Bastian in the compound of St Anne's Church in his memory.