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Pope’s visit: Church depends on God
Despite the possibility of violence, the Catholic Church is relying on faith in God and government assurances that the upcoming presidential election will not interfere with the scheduled visit of Pope Francis in January, a spokesman said yesterday. The presidential election has been fixed for January 8 – five days ahead of the Pope’s visit. The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, declined to comment but Spokesman, Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini, said: “Nobody knew that the elections will be held close to the Holy Father’s visit. We would have been happy if the elections had been held well before the papal visit.”
Billboards have already come up in Puttalam and Chilaw showing UPFA politicians’ photographed with Pope Francis when President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the Vatican recently. Pix by Augustine Fernando
Fr. Gamini, who is the director of media and information secretariat for the papal visit said, “There is already a security concern and we cannot dismiss that. But we have complete faith and we hope the Government will keep its word.” He said the Church was going ahead with the preparations.
“Nobody can say there will or won’t be pre- or post-poll violence. But we are praying hard for the papal visit and we have faith that God will make this visit go smoothly,” Fr. Gamini said. “The preparations for the Pope’s visit are being made by various committees and, therefore, the elections will not hinder our arrangements. We have, however, appealed that nobody should make use of Pope Francis’s visit in their election propaganda activities,” he said.
“We are praying that there will be a peaceful election, but we cannot be certain of anything,” he said. Earlier the Catholic Church in a statement said, “If an election is to be held before the visit, it must be held in such a way that the preparations for the visit should not be disturbed by such an event.” The Archdiocese of Colombo has estimated a budget of 50 million rupees to be spent on the Pope’s visit in January.