Sri Lanka Church demands Easter Sunday justice – did the Church punish Church priests linked to LTTE?
Posted on October 27th, 2021

Shenali D Waduge

A terrorist and a terror attack whatever justification for their killings must be abhorred by all. Sri Lanka is no stranger to killings since independence. We have seen JVP killings, UNP mass killings in 1980s/early 1990s, 3 decades of LTTE killings and when we thought that ended with May 2009, we were surprised with the Easter Sunday mass murder. None of these murders are more important than the other. All these heinous crimes were aimed at innocent people and were calculated murder. What is the justice that the dead and their families have got? While we have demanded justice from LTTE & all those who were part of LTTE nexus, the international community demands release of LTTE combatants. The Church now demands justice for the Easter Sunday dead, demanding the exposure of the masterminds behind the attack, but the Church is conveniently forgetting that the Church did nothing against Church priests who were openly and abashedly helping LTTE including scores of faith-based NGOs with funding. Can we ask the Church why it is selective in its demand for justice? Innocent people were killed by LTTE just as innocent people were killed by pro-ISIS Islamic terrorists. Why didn’t the Church take action against the likes of Rayappu Joseph et al?

Father S. J. Emmanuel: Former Vicar-General of Jaffnacalled Prabakaran‘Jesus Christ’, the LTTE ‘soldiers of Christ’, the suicide bombers ‘martyrs of the Catholic Church’ to whom the Church provided a Catholic burial, and proclaimed himself as ‘the Moses’ who would lead the Tamil nation from the bondage of Sinhalese-Buddhists to the land chosen for them by God: Eelam. He now leads the Global Tamil Forum and entity banned by the GoSL

Why would the Church allow a separate congregation for Tamils and non-Tamils inside the Church – in a religion preaching to all equally and when all are supposed to be God’s children?

Fr. Jegath Gasper Rajmain link for Tigers in India Tamil Tigers and the Church consider Fr. Gaspar Raj as their latest pop priest.”

 

LTTE Voice of Tigers tied up with Radio Veritas, a Catholic broadcasting station run by the Asian Catholic Bishops Conferencebased in The Philippines. The Tamil Service of the Radio Veritas is run by the Tamil Catholics of Tamil Nadu. 

Voice of Tigers had a coordinating office” inside St. Sebastian’s Church in Mallavi, Wanni; ran LTTE’s Voice of Tigers with Radio Veritas (run by Asian Catholic Bishops Conference) which reached an audience of 850,000 people.

the office was opened by the pro-LTTE Bishop of Mannar Fr. Rayappu Joseph.

Incidentally, Jaffna Mayor and MP of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Alfred Duraiappa, Prabhakaran’s first assassination, had got off at the Madhu Church before proceeding to Jaffna. Many believe it was a tip off from the Church that informed Prabhakaran of Duraiappah’s arrival in Jaffna, leading to his death.

18 February 2013 – Rev. Rajappu Joseph with 132 Catholic priestswrote to the President and members of the 22rd UNHRC session appealing for a resolution on accountability, reconciliation, human rights in Sri Lanka. The letter starts ‘As a group of concerned Christians’ and requested that the UN ‘acknowledge the international self-determination of the Tamil people’– this directly depicts his guilt in openly canvassing for the balkanization of Sri Lanka politically if not through the LTTE as was seen in his association with the LTTE leader.

World Council of Churches has been promoting the concept of traditional homeland theory in 1994 at the UNHRC in Geneva. www.sangam.org

January 2014 – Rev. Rayappu Joseph and Rev. Thomas Savundaranayagam alleged that cluster bombs were used by the Sri Lankan army to Stephen Rapp, and to look into deliberate attacks on hospitals, places of worship and the blockade of food and medicine for the civilians trapped in the fighting.

3rd March 2014 – Rev. Rajappu Joseph joined 204 Tamil Christian priestsin writing to the UNHRC Members to call for an international investigation on Sri Lanka

5th March 2014 – Rev. Rajappu Joseph joined 34 othersignatories including Desmond Tutu, C. V.  Wigneswaran, R.  Sambandan, Yasmin Sooka (Member of UN Panel of Experts) in a petition demanding UNHRC to set up a Commission of Inquiry on Sri Lanka

the World Council of Churches that sponsored the LTTE office in LondonEelam House” which commenced its operation from 1984 officially opened by Father Reyappu Joseph denigrating the SL Government in general and the Sinhalese Buddhist in particular.

LTTE abducts 16 children from Catholic Church run orphanage –Dharmapuram  

A cultural event held at Thirumalai pavilion on 16 December 2012 staged 3 dramas enacted by children from Jaffna Central College, Hindu College and Vembadi Girls College highlighting torture and harassment by the GOSL and SL Army, that Eelam cause was not over even though LTTE cadres were dead(Nilavinai Kurudakka Mudiyathu) and children acting as rehabilitated cadres claiming they had been brainwashed (Kannadiyin Peyum Malai).

On 27 July 2013 another drama was staged and shown to over 1000 on the 13th amendment, the Katchchativu issue– these were all efforts to build resentment against the Government.

Clergy involved: M. V. E.  Ravichandran (In Charge), Justin Gnanaprakasham (Committee Coordinator), Anton Jeyamsnadan (Pullopalai East Church)

27 August 2013 – Catholic clergy from Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Jaffna together with TNA and TNPF politicians conducted anti-Government protests in front of the UN officeduring visit of Navi Pillay. Also participating were Rev. Sebbamalai and Rev. Francis Cruz (Neru) of the Mannar Citizen Committee.

Navi Pillay visiting Trincomalee had an hour-long discussion with Fr. Yogeshwaran, a human rights activist of the Jesuit Novitiate, She did not meet a single victim of LTTE terrorism.

Responsibility of the Church

Just as the Church is demanding accountability for Easter Sunday, perhaps the same Church can explain their silence about taking action against Church clergy openly promoting and linked to LTTE terrorists.

  1. Jebanesan, Bishop of Church of South India was thrown out of the Church of South Indiafor using the Church for LTTE activities and this is a good moral lesson the Church in Sri Lanka should follow.

The LTTE killed more people than we care to count. To know that Church priests were associated with such an entity while the Church took no action against them is shocking to say the least. However, the same Church is demanding justice and accountability and exposure of all masterminds linked to the Easter Sunday suicides.

Will the Church take action against all of the Church clergy linked to the LTTE?

Will the Church take action against all Catholic/Christian laymen linked to and associated with the LTTE?

Will the Church take action against all Catholic/Christian NGOs that helped LTTE?

Will the Church care to respond to the role of its clergy in LTTE terror since 1970s. When will the Church take action or will the Church take action?

Shenali D Waduge

2 Responses to “Sri Lanka Church demands Easter Sunday justice – did the Church punish Church priests linked to LTTE?”

  1. Ratanapala Says:

    Running with the hares and hunting with the tigers!

    Catholic /Christian Churches ran with the hares and hunted with the Tigers! It was more or less the hand maiden of the LTTE in the South. They provided the necessary ground support for all anti-war efforts while providing safe haven for the LTTE bombers in the areas where Catholic / Christians are in the majority. Now after the Easter Sunday attacks they want to paint themselves with righteous indignation at the slow pace of the execution of the judicial process.

    There is Allah and then God to be precise, Jehovah! According to the The Old Testament -believed by Jews Muslims and Christians they are both supposed to be the same. The adherents belonging to both camps over the years, and centuries have killed each other with glee.

    What happened in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019 was another version of this enmity continuing to date. For us bystanders there is much confusion because literally it is the same God in the end who is blowing up bombs with one hand and now asking to find the Mahamola Karuwa by the other!

    What really happened is really laughable. Those doctored, brought up and tutored (brain washed) in their holy book the Koran and have unwavering belief in Allah came and blew themselves up inside the churches of Jehovah where his followers were praying and remembering crucifixtion and rising from the dead of Jesus, his son ( an event that he too was witnessed two millennia ago, but did not intervene – Jesus is reportedly lamented on the cross -Why hast thous forsaken me in his death throes!) Although he is supposed to be omnipresent, omniscient and omni omni ad infinitum, this time too he only witnessed but did not intervene.

    The churches were destroyed but Jehovah did not come to lift a single grain of sand to re-build the churches. They were all rebuilt and restored to better than their ‘previous glory’ by the much maligned members of the Armed Forces.

    The worshippers are now back at their newly built churches and praying to the same God who did not lift a finger while being all powerful and all seeing to save them. Hundreds died and more hundreds are injured and maimed for life.

    Now the Cardinal is in want of taking his ‘case’ to the Vatican – that infamous institution that give safe harbor to pedophile priests, that kept on the business of money laundering, people trafficking and child molestations throughout the world over several millennia! The evidence of child abuse is surfacing from all over the world – Canada and North and South American countries from one end to Europe, Asia and even in the Down Under – Australia and New Zealand the sordid tale of church child molestation is surfacing everyday. Cardinal Pell who was once thought of as a ‘Pope in waiting’ only managed to escape a longer jail sentence due to loopholes in the law. The Pope has told the same lie that he will keep on praying to the same God and St Anthony, who witnessed the bombers in bomb making, transporting and finally whole bombing but didn’t raised a holy finger to prevent the dastardly crime.

    They are blaming the government and even trying to implicate the Pohottuwa Government, that the Easter Sunday Attacks favoured their coming to power. This is forgetting and believing that ordinary right thinking people will forget that their ‘love child’ the Jadapalana Government was so unpopular even as far back as March 2018, they practically lost all local government seats!

    The Easter Sunday attacks barely helped the Pohottuwa to come to power. Even after the Easter Sunday attacks, the Catholics Harin Fernando ( who famously knew about the attack) Kavin Jayawardana, Hector Appuhamy, and Festus Perera’s got elected from the Catholic Belt without much effort! So much so for the Catholic vote favoring Pohottuwa!

    As for bringing those responsible for the Easter Sunday Attacks to justice – it takes time for the judicial process to get ready and put in place litigation charges and procedures. Only two and half years have passed so far – lengthy investigations have taken place and are still continuing. Let us look at a few similar or more horrific incidents from elsewhere in the world and how the litigation process is continuing:

    a) 9/11 attacks in the US in Sept 2001: Now 20 Years after the attacks five are accused of war crimes. These aircraft hijackings resulted in the deaths of 2,976 people. The latest is that a new military judge has been assigned to the trial, previously expected to start in 2022 but now likely to be further delayed as lawyers for the defence prepare to attack the legal foundation of the military commission.13 Nov 2015

    b) Paris Attack: 130 people killed. Trial only beginning now – nearly 7 years later

    c) 17 July 2014 – Malaysian Air Lines MH17 attack – Trial began in June this year – after 7 years

    Do we really know who killed President John F Kennedy? Lee Harvey Oswald was pointed out as the lone killer after a summary investigation now famously called the Warren Commission Report in Sep 1964 and the investigation closed. It took less than one year to produce this report.

    Perhaps it is this type of quick justice that the Cardinal and the Catholic Church are looking for.

    What is so far clear in the Easter Sunday Attacks is that – Islamic Jihadists were getting ready for an attack in Sri Lanka most probably an attack on a Buddhist gathering such as a procession. They were collecting bombs, knives, 12,000 swords and even Buddhist ladies wear that is traditionally worn when entering temples by the devout. However, things got a different turn when Mosque Attack in Christchurch took place. I believe this was the precursor to the attack in Sri Lanka mainly on the Christians. These attacks definitely cannot be given the description – not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity!

    Future Jihadists and robotic terrorists get schooled from an early age in religious schools called Madraasaas. It doesn’t take much to activate them. This is how 9/11 happened too. When the ‘calling comes’ they get moving!

    We only ask the Cardinal – Is it fair to ask the government to get involved in the judiciary process and for them to ask for the proverbial ‘pound of flesh’ so soon? Then we tell them quite clearly that we haven’t forgotten their slimy role helping and protecting the Terrorist LTTE and the works of Catholic Action – the subversive action to deny the Sinhalese and the Buddhists their due rights in their only homeland – Sri Lanka!

  2. Gunasinghe Says:

    well said Rathnapala.

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