{"id":119646,"date":"2021-10-27T16:39:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T23:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=119646"},"modified":"2021-10-27T16:39:42","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T23:39:42","slug":"sri-lanka-church-demands-easter-sunday-justice-did-the-church-punish-church-priests-linked-to-ltte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/27\/sri-lanka-church-demands-easter-sunday-justice-did-the-church-punish-church-priests-linked-to-ltte\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Church demands Easter Sunday justice \u2013 did the Church punish Church priests linked to LTTE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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A\nterrorist and a terror attack whatever justification for their killings must be\nabhorred by all. Sri Lanka is no stranger to killings since independence. We\nhave seen JVP killings, UNP mass killings in 1980s\/early 1990s, 3 decades of\nLTTE killings and when we thought that ended with May 2009, we were surprised\nwith the Easter Sunday mass murder. None of these murders are more important\nthan the other. All these heinous crimes were aimed at innocent people and were\ncalculated murder. What is the justice that the dead and their families have\ngot? While we have demanded justice from LTTE & all those who were part of\nLTTE nexus, the international community demands release of LTTE combatants. The\nChurch now demands justice for the Easter Sunday dead, demanding the exposure\nof the masterminds behind the attack, but the Church is conveniently forgetting\nthat the Church did nothing against Church priests who were openly and\nabashedly helping LTTE including scores of faith-based NGOs with funding. Can\nwe ask the Church why it is selective in its demand for justice? Innocent\npeople were killed by LTTE just as innocent people were killed by pro-ISIS\nIslamic terrorists. Why didn\u2019t the Church take action against the likes of\nRayappu Joseph et al?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Father S. J. Emmanuel: Former\nVicar-General of Jaffna<\/strong>called Prabakaran\u2018Jesus Christ\u2019, the LTTE \u2018soldiers of Christ\u2019, the suicide bombers\n\u2018martyrs of the Catholic Church\u2019 to whom the Church provided a Catholic burial,\nand proclaimed himself as \u2018the Moses\u2019 who would lead the Tamil nation from the\nbondage of Sinhalese-Buddhists to the land chosen for them by God:\nEelam. He now leads the Global Tamil Forum and entity banned by the GoSL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why\nwould the Church allow a separate congregation for Tamils and non-Tamils inside\nthe Church \u2013 in a religion preaching to all equally and when all are supposed\nto be God\u2019s children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Jegath Gasper Raj<\/strong>main\nlink for Tigers in India Tamil Tigers and the Church consider Fr. Gaspar Raj\nas their latest pop priest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE <\/strong>Voice of Tigers<\/em> tied\nup with <\/strong>Radio Veritas<\/em>, a Catholic broadcasting station run by the Asian Catholic\nBishops Conferencebased in The Philippines. The Tamil Service of the <\/strong>Radio Veritas<\/em> is\nrun by the Tamil Catholics of Tamil Nadu. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voice of Tigers<\/em><\/strong> had a coordinating office\u201d inside St. Sebastian\u2019s Church in\nMallavi, Wanni; ran LTTE\u2019s Voice of Tigers with<\/strong> Radio Veritas<\/a><\/strong> (run by Asian Catholic Bishops Conference) which reached an\naudience of 850,000 people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the office was opened by the\npro-LTTE Bishop of Mannar Fr. Rayappu Joseph.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally, Jaffna Mayor and\nMP of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Alfred Duraiappa, Prabhakaran\u2019s first\nassassination, had got off at the Madhu Church before proceeding to Jaffna.\nMany believe it was a tip off from the Church that informed Prabhakaran of\nDuraiappah\u2019s arrival in Jaffna, leading to his death.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

18 February 2013 \u2013 Rev. Rajappu\nJoseph with 132 Catholic priests<\/strong>wrote to the President and\nmembers of the 22rd UNHRC session appealing for a resolution on accountability,\nreconciliation, human rights in Sri Lanka. The letter starts \u2018As a group of\nconcerned Christians\u2019 and requested that the UN \u2018acknowledge the international self-determination of the Tamil people\u2019<\/strong>\u2013\nthis directly depicts his guilt in openly canvassing for the balkanization of\nSri Lanka politically if not through the LTTE as was seen in his association\nwith the LTTE leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Council of Churches has been\npromoting the concept of traditional homeland theory in 1994 at the UNHRC in\nGeneva. www.sangam.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 2014 \u2013 Rev. Rayappu\nJoseph and Rev. Thomas Savundaranayagam<\/a> alleged that\ncluster bombs were used by the Sri Lankan army to Stephen Rapp<\/a><\/strong>, and to look into deliberate\nattacks on hospitals, places of worship and the blockade of food and medicine\nfor the civilians trapped in the fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3rd March 2014 \u2013 Rev. Rajappu\nJoseph joined 204 Tamil Christian priests<\/strong>in writing to the\nUNHRC Members to call for an international investigation on Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5th March 2014 \u2013 Rev. Rajappu\nJoseph joined 34 other<\/strong>signatories including Desmond Tutu, C.\nV.  Wigneswaran, R.  Sambandan, Yasmin Sooka (Member of UN Panel of\nExperts) in a petition demanding UNHRC to set up a Commission of Inquiry on Sri\nLanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the World\nCouncil of Churches that sponsored the LTTE office in London<\/strong>Eelam\nHouse\u201d which commenced its operation from 1984 officially opened by Father\nReyappu Joseph denigrating the SL Government in general and the Sinhalese\nBuddhist in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTTE abducts 16 children from\nCatholic Church run orphanage \u2013Dharmapuram  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cultural event held at\nThirumalai pavilion on 16 December 2012 staged 3 dramas enacted by children\nfrom Jaffna Central College, Hindu College and Vembadi Girls College\nhighlighting torture and harassment by the GOSL and SL Army, that Eelam cause\nwas not over even though LTTE cadres were dead(Nilavinai Kurudakka Mudiyathu)\nand children acting as rehabilitated cadres claiming they had been brainwashed\n(Kannadiyin Peyum Malai).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 27 July 2013 another drama\nwas staged and shown to over 1000 on the 13th amendment, the Katchchativu\nissue\u2013 these were all efforts to build resentment against the Government.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clergy involved: M. V. E. \nRavichandran (In Charge), Justin Gnanaprakasham (Committee Coordinator), Anton\nJeyamsnadan (Pullopalai East Church)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 August 2013 \u2013 Catholic\nclergy from Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Jaffna together with\nTNA and TNPF politicians conducted anti-Government protests in front of the UN\nofficeduring visit of Navi Pillay. Also participating were Rev. Sebbamalai and\nRev. Francis Cruz (Neru) of the Mannar Citizen Committee.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navi Pillay<\/a><\/strong> visiting Trincomalee had an hour-long discussion with Fr.\nYogeshwaran, a human rights activist of the Jesuit Novitiate, She did not meet\na single victim of LTTE terrorism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsibility of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as the Church is demanding accountability for Easter\nSunday, perhaps the same Church\ncan explain their silence about taking action against Church clergy openly\npromoting and linked to LTTE terrorists.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Jebanesan<\/a>, Bishop of Church of South India was\nthrown out of the Church of South India<\/a>for using the Church for\nLTTE activities and this is a good moral lesson the Church in Sri Lanka should\nfollow.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The\nLTTE killed more people than we care to count. To know that Church priests were\nassociated with such an entity while the Church took no action against them is\nshocking to say the least. However, the same Church is demanding justice and\naccountability and exposure of all masterminds linked to the Easter Sunday\nsuicides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Will\nthe Church take action against all of the Church clergy linked to the LTTE?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Will\nthe Church take action against all Catholic\/Christian laymen linked to and\nassociated with the LTTE?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Will\nthe Church take action against all Catholic\/Christian NGOs that helped LTTE?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Will\nthe Church care to respond to the role of its clergy in LTTE terror since\n1970s. When will the Church take action or will the Church take action?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}