Colombo: With his 48-hour visit to Sri Lanka, Pope Francis has set a unique record that statisticians will have to figure out the exact details. Over three fourths of Sri Lanka’s 1.2 million Catholics traversed long distances to have a glimpse of the Pope during his January 13-15 visit to the Indian Ocean island.
When Pope Francis arrived at 9 am on January 13 at the airport – 28 km north of downtown Colombo, all those who mattered in Sri Lanka had lined up to greet him at the tarmac led by Sri Lankan president Maitripala Sirisena who assumed power after winning the January 8 presidential polls.
Accompanied by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka, and others in convoys, Pope Francis stood waving his hands at enthusiastic crowds for over two hours in open papal mobile along the route from the airport to the Nunciature in downtown Colombo.
More than half a million Catholics had filled the Galle Face Green ground in the heart of Colombo hours before the Pope was to arrive on January 14 early morning for the canonization of Blessed Joseph Vaz and the public Mass. Even those who reached the ground four hours ahead could not enter the ground already packed to capacity as the more determined were in the ground from the previous evening.
Catholics had indeed reason to rejoice when the Pope canonized Blessed Vaz, ‘Apostle of Sri Lanka’ – hailing from Goa in India, who had singlehandedly revived the Catholic Church in the island nation reeling under Dutch Calvinist oppression in late 1600’s.
Thousands of Indians, many from Goa – homeland of St Vaz – could be spotted among those lining patiently the papal route for hours at Borelle junction near the Nunciature. One group even waved a large Indian flag to welcome the Pope.
Along with archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao of Goa, the four cardinals from India – Major archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry, CBCI president Major Archbishop Cardinal Baselios Mar Cleemis, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay and Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi – moved ahead in the solemn procession led by the Pope.
As the canonization service began, a black wooden cross was brought in solemn procession. It was the relic of Blessed Vaz – the wooden cross that Vaz had planted in one of the churches and presently preserved in the church at Galdamunwa in Kurungela diocese.
With the tomb of Vaz who died in 1709 remaining untraced, the only big relic of the saint was the cross as he used to install crosses wherever he went. No wonder, St Vaz’s statues invariably show him carrying a cross in his hand.
After the canonization, Pope Francis exhorted the Catholics to emulate Vaz by spreading the Gospel with ‘missionary zeal’.
“St. Joseph Vaz knew how to offer the truth and the beauty of the Gospel in a multi-religious context, with respect, dedication, perseverance and humility,” the Pope said. Noting that St. Joseph Vaz had won the support of a Buddhist king by caring for victims of a smallpox epidemic, and thus “was allowed greater freedom to minister,” the Pope praised Sri Lankan church’s compassionate service to their neighbors.
The two enclosures in front of the altar for the physically handicapped and the sick looked like a mini hospital with many in wheel chairs and stretchers with family attendants and nurses around along with deaf and dumb.
“More than 500 sick and differently challenged from church centers across the nation have been brought here,” explained Fernando Pulle, a retired government Pediatrician, in charge of the special enclosure.
Soon after the Pope left, hundreds of priests swarmed the altar and posed for photos around the wood carved life size statue of Saint Vaz.
As the crowd started dispersing, Elborne D’Silva, a shipping captain from Goa accompanied by his wife Namita and two sons including the youngest 14 month old, was struggling to move out with their baby cradle trolley.
“We were worried how we could stay in the crowd for long with the baby. We were at the back of the crowd. But the moment, they (Sri Lankans) realized we were from Goa, they encouraged us to move forward. Finally we settled behind the choir and we had chairs too,” said Namita who has been a devotee of St Vaz from her childhood.
“Namita only developed the devotion in me. We were keen to be here whatever the difficulties,” said Elborne pointing out that “Sri Lankans have great devotion for St Vaz and love for Goans.”
Five hours later, the Pope was at the Marian shrine of Madhu, 240 km north of Colombo after a helicopter ride, to give a ‘healing touch’ to the overwhelmingly ethic Tamil crowd – many of whom had gone through the travails of the bloody protracted civil war.
Nearly half a million people erupted in joy when Holy Father released a pigeon before he expressed solidarity with their suffering: “There are families here today which suffered greatly in the long conflict which tore open heart of Sri Lanka.”
According to international monitors, more than 100,000 lives – most of them civilians – had perished in the bloody ethnic war that had crippled the ethnic Tamil minority areas in the north and the east for a quarter century till 2009.
“Many people, from north and south alike, were killed in terrible violence and bloodshed,” said the Pope addressing the crowd. “Though the intercession of Our Lady of Madhu, may all people find here inspiration and strength to build a future of reconciliation, justice and peace,” said the Pope.
The Pope made this plea after he got down from the papal mobile to enter the special enclosure of over 1,000 war victims – most of them amputees in wheel chairs – shook hands with several of them – at the sprawling grounds of Marian shrine, located in a jungle region and that had been a refuge for thousands of war victims for over two decades.
The Madhu shrine houses a historic tiny statue of Mary venerated by Sri Lankans since the 16th century. Following persecution of Catholics under Dutch Calvinists in the 1600s, some of them reached the Madhu jungle with the two feat statue of Mary and built the Madhu church that has become the biggest pilgrim center in Sri Lanka.
During most of the 26-year struggle between government forces and the Tamil rebels, both sides recognized the area around the shrine as a demilitarized zone, which served as a sanctuary for thousands of war refugees. However, in 2008, when the shrine came under crossfire the historic statue had to be removed from the shrine.
“It was like meeting God. The Pope shook hands with me ….and the Pope’s touch took way all my pains of these years,” said Kunaratnam Sabaratnam’s whose legs had been severed by a shell in the closing stages of Sri Lanka’s ethnic war.
Three days earlier, he presented a wood carved souvenir to Pope Francis when the pontiff visited the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary, 256 km north of Colombo. The carving was signed by each of the 120 residents of the Vanni center.
“The Pope’s speech was touching. There should be no war in the world,” said 50 year old Sabaratnam speaking to this correspondent on January 17 at the Claretian-run VAROD (Vanni Rehabilitation Organization for the Differently Abled) in Vavuniya, 40 km from the Marian shrine.
S Mohananathan, a Hindu who had been blinded in one eye when sand hit his eye in shelling, told this correspondent that he was “thrilled that the Pope came to meet us in this shrine in the jungle.”. Three of his five children had died in the same shelling of July 2008 at Mullaithieve in the LLTE-held area.
“The Pope’s message is that he is with us. We hope the world and the government will take note of the solidarity the Pope has expressed with us,” pointed out 63-year old Mohananathan.
“All my pains have been washed away when my daughter (Mary) presented a bouquet to the Holy Father,” said Antony Constantine who works at the Madhu Shrine.
Constantine recalled that his two elder sons Britto (14) and Bruno (12) were among 16 children from the refugee camp at the shrine who were killed in a landmine blast along with their headmaster on their way to school in 2008.
“Both of them were altar boys and I am happy that my daughter was chosen to present a bouquet to the Holy Father,” said Constantine touching the cross on top of the tombs of his sons in the cemetery where 16 children have been buried in a row.
Constantine said he came to the Shrine in 2006 with his family to meet his sister – Sister Ida Thomas – a Holy Cross nun – in the convent near the shrine and to visit the shrine.
“Suddenly the ceasefire ended and there was war. We could not go back to Jaffna and we decided to stay in the refugee camp,” Constantine narrated how the war changed his life.
Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar under which the shrine falls, said that the Pope was ‘eager to visit’ the shrine and also meet the war victims.
“It was to emphasize the Pope’s message of peace that we organized the release of dove (by the Pope),” Bishop Joseph said sitting in his office in Mannar. He has been facing criticism from Sinhala nationalists for speaking up for the civilian war victims.
Thousands of Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims also had flocked to the shrine for a glimpse of the Pope. Bishop Joseph pointed out that although Catholics in the northern region number over 300,000, more than half a million people including thousands of Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims were there at Madhu for a glimpse of Pope Francis.
Earlier the Pope had surprised many when he came down the podium at the end of the hour long interreligious meet on January 13 evening attended by two hundred Buddhist monks, scores of Hindu priests, Muslim clerics as well as leaders and pastors of other Christian denominations.
The Pope went around shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries the religious leaders for 10 minutes. However, the climax of the Pope’s eagerness to reach out to other faiths came when he made a surprise visit to the prominent Buddhist temple in Colombo on January 14 evening. The Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka reciprocated by showing the Pope the historical relics of Buddha’s disciples, exposed only for the annual Buddhist feast in May.
“The Pope’s visit to our temple was a historic gesture. We have found that the last time a Pope entered a Buddhist temple was in 1984,” Ven Banagala Upatissa, president of Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka which has its headquarters at Mardan suburb of Colombo, told Catholic News Service in an interview on January 15.
“It (the visit) was a gift to the whole Buddhist world. That is why we decided to show him the relic,” pointed out Ven Upatissa during the interview at his residence complex at Makola, 16 kms outside Colombo.
The Mahabodhi Vihara at the its headquarters of the Mahabodhi Society is known for the relics of the two disciples of Lord Buddha – Arhanata Sariputta and Moggallana – brought from Buddhist holy land of Sanchi India in 1952.
“We broke the tradition to honour the Pope,” explained Ven Upatissa, chief monk of the Buddhist holy shrine of Sanchi in India and heads one of the most influential Buddhist organizations in the world with branches in several countries.
(Anto Akkara, South Asia correspondent of CNS – Catholic News Service from Washington, accompanied the Pope in Sri Lanka)