"It is good to see the faces of our youth so bright,"

Catholics in Nepal have welcomed the Nepalese king's restoration of parliament and an elected government following weeks of pro-democracy protests.

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"This is an opportune time for peacemakers to be active," Jesuit Father Augustine Peedikamala, principal of St. Xavier's College, the only Catholic-run college in Nepal, told UCA News.

"It is good to see the faces of our youth so bright," Jesuit Father Arul Anandam told UCA News, as some of his students from the college introduced him to popular local singer-celebrities who came for the event.

The place was also teeming with uniform-clad students from various Catholic schools in Kathmandu, nuns in habits and parishioners from Assumption Church burning candles, releasing balloons and holding banners that read "peace."

Sister Mary Edwina, superior of the Companions of Jesus in the capital, told UCA News their group of seven nuns had an additional reason to be lighting candles for peace. The St. Mary's school for girls that her congregation runs in Gorkha, 135 kilometers (about 85 miles) west of Kathmandu, reopened this week, after being closed due to direct and indirect threats by Maoist rebels demanding an end to private education. The school suffered two arson attacks.