Secretary Defense calls on Pope Francis
Posted on November 21st, 2013
Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva
His Holiness Pope Francis received Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa at an audience in the Vatican on Wednesday. Mr. Rajapaksa who visited the Vatican as the Special Envoy of His Excellency the President, conveyed to Pope Francis an invitation from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to visit Sri Lanka in the near future.
‚ During his visit, the Secretary also paid courtesy calls on dignitaries of the Vatican City State. Mr Rajapaksa appreciated efforts by the Holy See to promote world peace, disarmament, interfaith dialogue and dialogue among civilisations. He said that as a nation that has been blessed with a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural social fabric, and more importantly as a country that was coming out of a long period of conflict, Sri Lanka valued the strength that comes from the unity of the diverse communities in Sri Lanka. After almost thirty years of suffering, Sri Lanka had embarked upon a new era of development and reconciliation for all its people and looked upon the international community for encouragement and support.
‚ He said that Sri Lanka was keen to explore further avenues to strengthen and consolidate relations between the Holy See and Sri Lanka.
‚ The delegation accompanying Mr. Rajapaksa included Mrs. Ioma Rajapaksa, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Holy See Ravinatha Aryasinha, Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Rome Bennet Cooray, the Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Jayanath Colombage and Chairman UDA Sirinimal Perera.
Geneva,
21 November 2013
November 21st, 2013 at 12:24 pm
Ratnapala- over to you…
November 21st, 2013 at 1:45 pm
This is another smart move similar to CHOGM. LieTTE rump will be running door to door to stop this visit by the Pope. LTTE carders in the church including Mannar Bishop and Father Emmanuel will do what ever they can to stop this.
Let’s wait and see!!
November 21st, 2013 at 1:48 pm
Hiranthe-
Gota has been and gone
November 21st, 2013 at 3:38 pm
Agree with Hiranthe.
Compared to Kasippu Joseph and the RACIST Pottu wearing Jaffna bishop the POPE is a VERY reasonable man. I like this Pope’s conduct.
Good PR move by GR.
GR deserves to be commended by the church for liberating Madhu church, etc. from Tamil racists. But the Catholic church in SL has been so damn racist they don’t see the obvious. SL Catholic church is NOT a representative of the Christian faith. There are bigger guradians of faith than them.
Tamils wanted Pope to BOYCOTT seeing GR!!! Too bad they failed, AGAIN.
Now both the Pope and the Prince are with the govt. Tamil Elamists will have to commit harakiri.
November 22nd, 2013 at 1:42 pm
SELF-SUFFICIENCY in Food & Energy should be TOP PRIORITIES for Sri Lanka!
………………..
Sri Lanka to import 20,000 cows to increase milk production
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 22, Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has allocated funds to boost the fresh milk production in the country.
Funds have been allocated in the 2014 budget proposals to import 20,000 milk cows of quality breeds to increase milk production.
Sri Lanka has 238,322 registered dairy farmers and nearly another 100,000 unregistered dairy farmers, according to the Ministry of Economic Development.
The local diary industry produces only 40 percent of the daily milk requirement while the rest is imported mainly from Australia and New Zealand.
According Sri Lanka’s livestock and health reports Sri Lanka’s milk consumption is 1.65 million liters per day whereas the average milk production per day in 2012 is 83,125 liters.
The government has taken measures to increase the local production and reduce the imports. From 2005 to 2012, the total milk production has increased by 107 million liters while number of dairy cows has increased by 150,000.
The Economic Development Ministry says that according to livestock experts another 300,000 of high-yielding dairy cows are needed to make Sri Lanka completely self-sufficient in fresh milk.
Sri Lanka expects to be self-sufficient in milk by 2016.
November 22nd, 2013 at 9:43 pm
Now Tamilians are against the church and the Pope!!
“[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2013, 16:45 GMT]
As Australian media on Friday reported that 79 Tamil asylum seekers were being sent back to Colombo amidst the controversial ties between the Sri Lankan Government and the Australian Government were further exposed in ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’ last week, Canberra-based retired Bishop Pat Power, long an outspoken critic of Rome, has criticised both the Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbot and the Catholic Church on the controversial Sri Lanka policy.”
“Retired” bishop!! How funny! Probably someone SACKED for child abuse charges. Tamilians have purchased him for money.