pic via: twitter.com/Pontifex

The increasing certainty of the presidential poll on January 8 has raised another issue — the visit of Pope Francis. He is still scheduled to arrive on January 13 for a three-day visit. An advanced team from the Vatican arrived in Colombo yesterday to examine the ground situation and determine whether the visit should remain on schedule. Tomorrow, the team will meet External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris during an inter-agency conference at the EAM where the advance team will learn about the arrangements being made.

The Vatican delegation will also meet the members of the Catholic Bishops Conference. The Vatican’s position on the visit was explained to UPFA leaders by the Archbishop of Colombo and head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith. He has said that the convention was that the Pope does not visit a country that faces elections for at least one month before that event. Similarly, he also does not visit a country for a month after elections are held.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

The UPFA Government is keen to ensure the Pope’s visit, currently on schedule, is not in any way changed. So much so, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa addressed a meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference on October 24. Of the 14 Bishops representing different dioceses, two were absent. They were Jaffna’s Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Savundranayagam and Trincomalee’s Bishop the Rt. Rev. Kingsley Swamipillai.

The Defence Secretary told the bishops he had ensured the highest security precautions were in place. Secretary Rajapaksa said it was not only the Catholic community that would be disappointed but also the UPFA Government if the Pope’s visit did not materialise. It would also reflect as a humiliation on President Rajapaksa, he claimed.

The bishops explained that all local developments were being reported to the Vatican and it was the Vatican that would have to make decisions, if any. It is clear that such a decision — whether Pope Francis would visit Sri Lanka or not – will be taken after the advance team returns to the Vatican and files its report.

Galle’s Bishop Raymond Wickremesinghe, Chairman of the Media and Information Unit for the Papal Visit, said in a media statement on Friday: “We have been made aware of certain reports circulated among some social media with the title ‘Stop the Papal visit in January,’ MR pressurizes the Church”.
Their statement adds: “We wish to categorically deny this report and clarify matters as follows:

“Our request to the Government has always been that any election should not be held immediately after the visit of the Holy Father to Sri Lanka because that might be politically used by interested parties as a campaign tool.

“If an election is to be held before the visit, it must be held in such a way that the preparations for the visit should not be disturbed by such an event. We have appealed to the President to give us a sufficient gap between the two events and they have assured us that everything will be done in order that the visit goes ahead without disruption due to an election.

“The decision to hold an election and the dates to be fixed for such an election are entirely in the hands of the Government and the Elections Commissioner. The Church has no interest in trying to interfere in that matter.

“At no time did the President or anyone in the Government apply any pressure on the Church to stop or postpone the visit of the Pope to Sri Lanka. In fact they have given us a lot of cooperation and support to make all the necessary arrangements for the visit. They have also officially sent an invitation from State to State to the Holy Father and it had been accepted. The Government also has informed us that the President, when he visited the Holy Father reiterated that the Government was very keen to welcome him in Sri Lanka”.

A Colombo datelined report in the Vatican News said that the visit was on schedule but added, “In recent days, there have been doubts and concerns about the Pope’s visit, given the presidential election in the country will be held soon and current President, Mahinda Rjapaksa could set them for January, so in the days immediately before or after Pope Francis’ visit. The Church asks the vote to be postponed at least to the end of January 2015, to avoid any kind of exploitation.”

Also in Colombo, the Chief Opposition Whip John Ameratunga, who is known to be close to President Rajapaksa and accompanied him on the trip to the Vatican recently, briefed those at the highest levels of his party, the United National Party.

He has said he was taken into the portals of the Vatican only after President Rajapaksa had paid his respects to the Holy Father. Ameratunga has told his party hierarchy that he asked Rajapaksa not to hold the presidential election till the visit by Pope Francis was over. Rajapaksa had included Ameratunga in his entourage to project that he was on a bipartisan mission when he visited the Vatican. Amaratunga had obtained his party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s permission to join Rajapaksa on the visit, but UNP members were unhappy that he had lent the party’s support for what was, they felt, a move by Rajapaksa to get an unfair advantage with the Catholics in the forthcoming Presidential election. Earlier, Ameratunga was a member of Rajapaksa’s official delegation that toured both Palestine and Israel. He remains the Chief Opposition Whip in Parliament and often acts for his party leader in Parliament when the leader is abroad.

Courtesy:Sunday Times