Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle's untimely death has convinced many
Christians living outside Sri Lanka that LTTE has no respect for
religion and religious places. They are also completely baffled by the
nonchalant attitude of the Catholic Bishop Conference in Sri Lanka on
LTTE's guile masquerading as defenders of the sacred Madhu premises. I
read the Asian Tribune reader from LA, Stephen Long's article
yesterday posing the question why the spiritual leader****p of the
Catholic Church in Sri Lanka got duped by the LTTE to push through
their evil designs. Many others I know have voiced their disbelief at
the inaction of the Sri Lankan Catholic Bishop Conference. Their
neutrality in the midst of an openly treacherous path taken by the
LTTE is completely inexplicable.
In a nut shell these are the issues now confronting the Catholic
Bishops: They cannot take the side of the LTTE terrorists. They should
seriously re-think their role in the civil conflict, and decide once
and for all which side they are morally bound to take. The Bishop of
Mannar by allowing the LTTE to continuously act with impunity has made
the Tamils in the North pawns in this apparent and dubious scheme of
the LTTE trying to make the Christians look completely unpatriotic.
The LTTE had moved the statue of Madhu to a church well inside their
lines of control. A neutral place would have been the ideal thing to
do. * Declaring protective motives, they moved the sacred statue of
the Virgin Mary from the shrine at Madhu to the church at Thevanpitti,
which is in the LTTE zone. By choosing this site rather than someplace
in an area, they have made the statue a symbol and rallying point for
the LTTE.
The neutrality the Bishops talk of must not only be real and but also
seemingly so. In terms of the Terrorist war waged by the LTTE, there
is no room to be on the fence. The LTTE has never respected places of
religious wor****p. Silence of the Bishops can only be construed as a
tacit condoning of what the Tigers are doing. It is a compelling moral
urgency that the Catholic Bishops take a lead role in getting the
sacred Madhu statue from the control of the LTTE. That is one way to
ensure that late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle the devout catholic did not die
in vain.
Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was an endearing leader who served his country
well. He was the epitome of racial and religious harmony. He died
attending a Tamil and Sinhala New Year festival event. We will be
paying our utmost respect to the memory of late Minister Jeyaraj
Fernandopulle by condemning in no uncertain terms our total
condemnation of the repulsive LTTE atrocities.
