Catholic Church in Sri Lanka:

Contribution to education

In the past the Western powers ruled countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America by the power of the gun. Today they adopt various devices like globalisation, IMF, NGOs, multi-national companies consumerism and cultural invasion to keep the third world countries under their subjugation. The whole process interned as ‘Re-colonisation’ and they use Christianity too for their imperial designs. First part of this article was published yesterday

W T A Leslie Fernando

That is not all. The Catholic Church today is opening branches of such schools all over the country for the benefit of bourgeoisie classes. In 1997, the delegates of the then Patriotic Catholic Front giving evidence before the Sinhala Commission condemned opening up these elite schools. The Catholic Church too was involved in opening up international schools.

One of the first to object against the international schools was the educationist Fr W L A Don Peter despite the fact that the Catholic Church too opened up one of the earliest international schools. Today the Catholic Church opens up international schools all over in competition with others to cater to the rich.

It is unbecoming of the representatives of God to charge illegal sums in the name of donations on admissions for students and set up international schools under the cover of Business Registration Act to cater to the rich. Fr Joseph E Fernando identifies that the Catholic education is bourgeoisie orientated where the children of fishermen, farmers and plantation workers are neglected.

In the late 1980’s when terrorist activities were rampant in the country, there were attempts by the Catholic priests in the NGO sector to infiltrate to the JVP. In some songs of Nanda Malinee’s Pavana program sung at JVP rallies the influence of ‘Liberation Theology’ is seen.

Controversial priest

There was a controversial priest who vehemently advocated that Buddhism and Christianity were parallel religions and lived in a house away from the Church in lay cloths surrounded by some nuns wearing lungi. He had some dealings with the JVP and Police were on his trail.

He was suddenly assassinated while performing Mass one evening in sarong while nuns were by his side. There is a controversy about his death. The priests in the NGO sector try to make him a Saint and martyr who laid down his life for the cause of suffering. The other view is that the terrorists themselves have killed him to prevent the Police extracting information about them. The manner in which he was assassinated by sudden firing and the killers vanishing indicate it was a terrorist killing.

There is a false belief that the Catholic community in Sri Lanka blindly obeys the hierarchy. The 2005 Presidential Election proved this to the country. Just before that election there was an advertisement in both Catholic and national journals with the photographs of the then Archbishop Oswald Gomis and Lalith Kothelawala under the title ‘Christians Awake’ with insinuations not to vote for President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Electoral lists

Although a few Catholic priests tactfully supported President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the majority of Catholic priests and Catholic organizations worked against him. There were announcements from pulpits, pamphlets and news items in Catholic journals so as to create a fear psychosis among the Catholics that if Mahinda Rajapaksa from the UPFA would win, the Catholics would be harassed and victimised.

However, the majority of Catholics defied the Church and voted for President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He got a majority of votes in all the predominant Catholic electorates except Negombo and Wattala.

In Negombo 12 percent of voters are Muslims and in Wattala there are nine percent Tamils. It is doubtful whether the majority of Catholics in these two electorates too voted against President Rajapaksa. After President Rajapaksa’s victory there were complaints in Catholic journals that the names of some Catholic clergy were deleted from electoral lists.

After Rt Rev Dr Malcolm Ranjith became Colombo Archbishop he made a statement although he earlier stood for a negotiated settlement that the LTTE was not keen for peace and appreciated President Rajapaksa bringing peace to the country by defeating the LTTE. During the 2010 Presidential Election, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference made a pronouncement allowing Catholics to vote according to their conscience. This was a better position than the stand of the Church at the 2005 Presidential Election. Whether the Catholic Church would shed its reactionary bourgeoisie outlook is yet to be seen.

Concluded