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Catholic Church refutes inflammatory statement on ‘people’s aragalaya’

21 Jul 2022

  • Slams FB post on page impersonating Archbishop, which claimed ‘aragalaya’ failed due to uneducated participants
BY Buddhika Samaraweera The Catholic Church has refuted a post on a Facebook (FB) page operating in the name of Colombo Archbishop, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, which claimed that the ongoing “people's aragalaya” (struggle) could not reach its goal because of the uneducated people who joined it. A post which states that “the aim of the struggle could not be reached because of the uneducated people who joined it” has been published on a Facebook page operating under the name “Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith”, and the said post was widely shared on Facebook. However, a spokesman for the Catholic Church stated that the Archbishop of Colombo does not maintain any such Facebook page. Therefore, he mentioned that neither the Catholic Church nor Archbishop Ranjith takes responsibility for the page with the said title or the posts that appear on it. The Archbishop of Colombo has been criticising the previous United National Front-led Government led by then-President and incumbent MP Maithripala Sirisena and then-Prime Minister and current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as well as the Government led by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on a number of occasions, saying that investigations related to the Easter Sunday terror attacks are not being carried out properly, and that justice does not seem to be served to the victims. When the “GotaGoGama” protest site in front of the Presidential Secretariat at the Galle Face Green in Colombo was attacked by a group of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna supporters on 9 May, Archbishop Ranjith visited and held a discussion with the protestors. Making a statement before the resignation of Rajapaksa, the Archbishop, claiming that the reason for the crisis in the country is that the Rajapaksa family is trying to hang onto power, said that Rajapaksa should immediately resign from his position, considering the demands of the people.  


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