{"id":74204,"date":"2021-09-09T03:13:54","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T08:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=74204"},"modified":"2021-09-09T03:44:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T08:44:11","slug":"prime-minister-mahinda-rajapaksa-never-sought-an-audience-with-pope-francis-during-his-visit-to-italy-states-foreign-ministry-after-cardinal-malcolm-ranjith-said-the-visit-was-an-attempt-to-mislead-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=74204","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa never sought an audience with Pope Francis during his visit to Italy States foreign ministry after Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said the visit was an attempt to mislead the Vatican about the 2019 Easter attack probe."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa never sought an audience with Pope Francis during his visit to the Vatican, the foreign ministry said after the head of the country\u2019s Catholic church Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith claimed the visit was an attempt to mislead the Vatican about the 2019 Easter attack probe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt no stage has the Prime Minister requested nor received an invitation to visit the Vatican for an audience with His Holiness the Pope,\u201d the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday (08).<\/p>\n

The ministry said both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister will visit Bologna, Italy, to take part in an international event which is to be attended by the Prime Minister of Italy and other dignitaries from Italy and other European countries.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the opening session of the international symposium which will be held in one of Europe\u2019s oldest seats of learning, the University of Bologna,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, Cardinal Ranjith said that briefing the Pope on action taken by the government would be \u201cchildish\u201d and \u201cdegrading\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Cardinal, who had earlier refused to meet foreign minister G L Peiris until the government fulfils some conditions, told journalists that a local English daily quoting cabinet Co-spokesman Ramesh Pathirana had said that the visit was to brief Pope Francis on action taken by the government over the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is a deadly pandemic in the country, we\u2019re seeing a conspiracy being attempted to cover up the Easter Sunday attack,\u201d Cardinal Ranjith told the media briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The cover-up) is done by the current government,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI condemn this trip [to the Vatican] because they are attempting a coverup and trying to mislead the Pope and the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 13, Ranjith demanded an explanation on an alleged attempt to pin the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).<\/p>\n

He claimed that a military intelligence officer referred to as \u2018Sonic\u2019 had used one \u2018Zaharan of Matale\u2019 to call an unspecified person in Indonesia to \u201cforce\u201d ISIS to claim responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n

Related: Head of Sri Lanka Catholic church alleges attempt to pin Easter attack on ISIS<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Christian community last month hoisted black flags at churches and homes to express anger over the government\u2019s investigation into the Easter bombings which killed 269 people and injured over 500.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Ranjith has repeatedly said that the investigation into the blasts was not being conducted properly. He has said he believes the real conspirators are still at large and has hinted at alleged attempts to shield the masterminds.<\/p>\n

Ranjith wrote a strongly-worded letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July claiming that there are allegations that some members of the state intelligence services knew and met with the attacker who initially did not explode his bomb. The Archbishop appealed to the authorities to investigate these allegations.<\/p>\n

Citing speeches in Parliament by lawmakers, Ranjith said intelligence personnel had also allegedly had a suspect released from police custody.<\/p>\n

President Rajapaksa\u2019s government had denied any inadequacy in the investigations into the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to hide in the international arena is childish,\u201d Cardinal Ranjith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, please do not do such a degrading act. It may hit your own head again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The cardinal further said Sri Lanka\u2019s Catholic church has already informed Vatican authorities as it was forced to take up the issue internationally and the matter is expected to be raised at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva next week. <\/p>\n

Courtesy;Economy Next<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa never sought an audience with Pope Francis during his visit to the Vatican, the foreign ministry said after the head of the country\u2019s Catholic church Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith claimed the visit was an attempt to mislead the Vatican about the 2019 Easter attack probe. \u201cAt no stage has …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa never sought an audience with Pope Francis during his visit to Italy States foreign ministry after Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said the visit was an attempt to mislead the Vatican about the 2019 Easter attack probe.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74205,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74204\/revisions\/74205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}