RSSAn official of Mannar diocese in northern Sri Lanka has denied reports of division within the local Church after several priests stayed away from a major celebration at the country´s premier Marian shrine.
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Devotees gathered at the popular Madhu shrine |
The priests were showing solidarity with Tamil civilians including priests and nuns confined in government camps, Father Anthony Victor Sosai explained to UCA News. “They did not come to the feast to show their support for the detainees, including altar servers, choristers and Church workers. That is all.”
The BBC Tamil Service on Aug. 17 reported that Tamil priests in Mannar diocese had boycotted the feast because of dissatisfaction with the Church over its handling of the detention issue.
Even so, the report included Father Sosai, who as vicar general is the highest diocesan official after the bishop, denying that division existed in the Church ranks.
“No, No. There is no split among Church,” he replied to a reporter´s question. He reiterated the point in a telephone interview with UCA News.
Although nearly 30 years of civil war between Tamil rebels and the Sinhalese-led government ended in mid-May, more than 300,000 Tamils languish in heavily guarded detention camps across the northern region.
They have little access to aid organizations and only limited contact with religious organizations including the Catholic Church. Six Catholic priests and three nuns are among the detainees.
With the end of the war, however, pilgrims from around the country flocked for the first time in decades to the celebration of the Aug. 15 feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother at the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu.
The shrine, whose origins go back to the Dutch persecution of local Catholics in the 16th century, is a center of devotion and pilgrimage for the more than 1 million Sinhalese and Tamil Catholics in Sri Lanka. But the shrine´s revered statue of Our Lady of Madhu, which some consider miraculous, also has long attracted people of all religions on the island.
However, the government refused permission for the refugees confined in 30 camps about 40 kilometers away to come to the shrine, despite many being from the area. Authorities say screening for rebels is not complete.
Despite unhappiness with the situation among many Catholic clergy, the vicar general says there is no disagreement within the Church itself.
“We maintain strong unity and one Church policy in Lankan conflicts,” he said.
Of the 45 priests in Mannar diocese, eight did not participate in the feast.
One of them, Father Anthony Jeyabalan Croos, parish priest at St Anne´s Church in Mannar, explained his intention:
“We wish to convey our prayers and solidarity in this difficult period for civilians confined in camps. I avoided feast to show my support for the civilians living in detention.”
He added that people across the country supported the action.
“We met pilgrims from the South and they understood us,” he said.
Another priest who chose not to attend the feast, Father Celestine Mascringe, is parish priest at St. Anthony´s Church in Cheddikulam, a village just five kilometers from the detention camps. He explained that seeing the conditions of people in the camps became too much for him.
“I see the suffering of the refugees,” he said. “Amid flooding they have to struggle even to find food. Finally, I decided I would not go to the feast celebration.”
Meanwhile, Colombo archdiocese is continuing a poster campaign organized by the Christian Solidarity Movement (CSM) to have Catholics keep the suffering of the Tamil detainees in mind.
Father Sarath Iddamalgoda, a Sinhalese priest with CSM in Colombo, commented sympathetically on the Mannar priests´ absence from the Madhu celebration.
“I suppose we cannot criticize them. It is their right to show their grievances,” he said.
Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, a Sinhalese, and Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam of Jaffna, a Tamil, in their homilies at the shrine called for the government to resettle the detainees in their home villages as soon as possible.
The archbishop said the feast would have been a more beautiful occasion had people from the refugees camps, particularly those who come from the area, been allowed to attend.
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