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Pope’s visit: Advance teams arrive to assess security situation
Two separate teams from the Vatican this week visited Sri Lanka to assess the security situation ahead of Pope Francis’ proposed visit next month, officials and church sources said.
One of the teams yesterday visited Galle Face Green in Colombo where the main Holy Mass of Pope Francis is due to take place and the Bolawalana church in Negombo which is also due to be visited by the Pope.
The delegation from the Vatican on an inspection tour of Madhu. Pix by S.R. Lambart
The team was accompanied by Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Navy Commander Vice Admiral Jayantha Perera on its visit to Galle Face.
The team had previously visited Madhu Church on Thursday, Rev. Father Cyril Gamini, Secretary to the Media and Information Secretariat of the Pope’s visit, said.
The team had wanted to see for itself the ongoing preparations. The members were well satisfied with the preparations but requested that the Holy Father be allowed to get closer to the people, a source in the Church said.
A security delegation had visited the Police Headquarters in Colombo Fort.
“We explained our security plans and the officials expressed their views and minor changes were made. They told us that they were well satisfied with the preparations,” a senior police officer said.
“We understand that there is a concern with the Presidential election. If there is a tense situation we are geared to face it. We will also get the help of the Special Task Force if needed,” he said.
Meanwhile representatives of several leading political parties met members of the Bishop’s Conference which took place on December 1, 2 and 3 at the Bishop’s Conference secretariat.
The representatives had urged the bishops to go ahead with the preparations for the Papal visit and had assured the Church that the elections will be conducted in a peaceful manner, Mannar Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph told the Sunday Times.
“We met President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena at the Bishop’s Conference during separate meetings last week. President Rajapaksa came with Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, while Mr. Sirisena came with Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe. Both parties assured the bishops that the elections will be conducted in a peaceful manner,” he said.
He added “We cannot dismiss the fears posed by some individuals, that the elections would disrupt the visit. But we had to balance these fears with the understanding of what is good for all the Catholics of Sri Lanka. The Church of Sri Lanka has decided to put aside any differences and stand by the decision that the Holy Father should visit Sri Lanka. The Papal visit is a visual visit of Christ on earth and postponing this event won’t work at all.”
He added, “We are taking the maximum precautions to ensure that the Papal visit will not be politicised. His visit will be a blessing to the country. The only chance of the Roman Pontiff cancelling a visit to the country, however, is if there is a serious threat posed to his life.”
The Sri Lanka Navy will be conducting a meeting on Wednesday regarding the security preparations pertaining to the Holy Father’s visit.
Meanwhile more than 70 journalists are expected to be on board the Pope’s aircraft. The requirement for foreigners to register with the Defence Ministry is being waived to allow them to travel to Madhu. However, they will be strictly restricted to a specified area.
| Catholic Lay Apostolate leader wants Pope’s visit put off Fr. Leo Perera, the director of the Catholic Lay Apostolate which oversees the spiritual and other needs of hundreds of thousands of lay people, has called for the postponement of the visit of Pope Francis to Sri Lanka from January 13 to 15. In a strongly-worded letter to the Catholic Bishops who are meeting this week, Fr. Perera said if the visit went ahead it would create the impression that “once more the Church is favouring the President.” Urging the Bishops to advise the Vatican and the Papal Nuncio here, Fr. Perera said: “Your Lordship, I personally think that the Conference should strongly recommend to the Nuncio and to the Vatican that with the recent turn of events, the proposed visit of the Holy Father should be postponed. “The canonization of Blessed Joseph Vaz can very well be carried out on a different date and even in a different place. Perhaps the understanding that His Holiness does not visit a country too close to an important national election can be cited as a valid reason for the postponement. This also is justified as the President has gone back on his assurances that the two events would not be too close to each other. |