CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC WEBSITE REMOVES NEWS ITEM THAT CLAIMED FATHER JIM BROWN’S BODY PARTS FOUND IN A BAG

By Walter Jayawardhana

A Catholic Charity organization in Australia pulled down a false news item sourced by a Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest that claimed body parts of a missing Catholic priest were found in an army bag , according to a DNA test after discovering it was a fabricated story.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity organization told this correspondent that a false report claiming that a recently found body parts in a body bag belonging to the army was those of the missing Catholic priest Father Jim Brown had been removed from their website and revealed the wrong information was supplied to them by a Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest named Father Marisapillai.

Fr Marisapillai is studying counselling and ACN is funding him on a course at the Institute of Saint Anselm, in the United Kingdom.

The email received by this correspondent from the Australian Director of the Aid to the Church in Need , Philip Colignon said , “Thank you for your e-mail pointing out that our ACN News item about Fr Brown is completely wrong. The article was written by John Pontifex a journalist from our UK office. John interviewed Fr Jeyabalan Marisapillai, a close friend of Fr Brown and the information gained from this interview was put out as a news item.

As a result of the information contained in your e-mail the news item has been removed from our website. John has been sent your correspondence and he will further investigate the facts of the matter.”

This correspondent sent his inquiries to the Australia based Catholic website after reading a report in the website that claimed Father Jim Brown’s body parts were found in a body bag according to a DNA analysis.

The inquiries were sent to the false information carrying Catholic website after this correspondent came to know that the DNA report issued by the Molecular Medicine lab in the Kelaniya University said the remains were not of Rev. Father Jim Brown or his friend.

The Sri Lanka government said , “The Molecular Medicine Unit of the University of Kelaniya , forwarding its finalized DNA analysis report into a human body part found off Pungkudutheevu, has forwarded its report to the Kayts Magistrate. According to the DNA analysis, the human remains found are not of either Rev. Jim Brown or his aide Mr. Vincent Vimalathas who is also said to have disappeared along with Rev. Brown.”

Sources in Kelaniya University Molecular Unit said no reporter named John Pontifex has checked the story from them to ascertain the accuracy of the story obtained from the Tamil Catholic priest named Jeyabalan Marisapillai.

The publication of the news on hearsay showed serious flows in reporting methods by the Catholic website reporter contravening accepted standards by journalists all over the world. The report has not been checked for accuracy allowing the website to be used as a piece of propaganda for a terrorist group, Sri Lankan sources said.

The story by John Pontifex said, “The decimated remains of a priest discovered in a bag off the Sri Lankan coast has shocked an entire island community. Anguish quickly turned to dismay as news spread that the torso discovered off Sri Lanka’s northerly coast proved to be that of 34-year-old Fr Jim Brown. The body was found at sea in March but it was so badly decayed that formal identification only came late last month after DNA testing with blood samples from the priest’s parents. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the charity for persecuted Christians, Fr Jeyabalan Marisapillai, a close friend of Fr Brown, described the people’s distress after the identification of the body.”

Since no such identification has ever been made the story appears to be a complete fabrication to mislead apparently with the help of Father jayabalan.

Such “human rights” stories are posted almost every week in an orchestrated campaign against Sri Lanka using “Christian” websites, Sri Lanka government sources said.

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