In October 2014, then President Mahinda Rajapaksa met Pope Francis and invited him to visit Sri Lanka. Before that, in 2013, Mahinda had written to the Pope formally inviting him to the country. His objective was to secure the Pope’s visit before holding the 2014 presidential election.
The coordination between Sri Lanka and the Vatican to facilitate the visit was handled by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith. He aimed to make Mahinda’s objective materialise. However, human rights organisations urged the Pope not to visit Sri Lanka because of the war crimes allegations that had been levelled against Mahinda’s government. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith played a major role in overcoming this opposition and persuading the Pope to accept the invitation.
Exactly one year before the presidential election, then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa met the Pope in an effort to secure confirmation of the visit. Although the meeting attracted criticism from human rights organisations because the Pope was meeting a Defence Secretary, which is against the protocol. That meeting, too, was coordinated by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.
While the Pope expressed willingness to visit Sri Lanka, he was not prepared to do so at a time when Mahinda was calling a presidential election. Instead, he indicated that he would visit after the election. By the time Pope Francis arrived in Sri Lanka, Mahinda had been defeated, and a new President had already taken office.
Recently, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake invited the new Pope, Pope Leo XIV, to visit Sri Lanka. The formal invitation was delivered to the Pope by Minister Bimal Rathnayake. He travelled to the Vatican in March and handed over the invitation. Once again, the coordination between the Sri Lankan government and the Vatican regarding the proposed papal visit is being handled by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.
Both Anura’s and the Cardinal’s aim would be to conclude the investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks before the Pope’s visit. Vatican sources claim that the government has given such an assurance to the Vatican. It is also apparent that the Cardinal is exerting pressure on the government to ensure progress on the investigations.
As a result of these investigations, a court recently imposed a foreign travel ban on Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It is an ironic twist of fate that Gotabaya, who in 2013 helped to facilitate the invitation that brought Pope Francis to Sri Lanka through Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s coordination, is now facing scrutiny in investigations related to the Easter Sunday attacks.
It remains unclear whether, by the time the Pope visits Sri Lanka, the government will have formally accused Gotabaya in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks and moved to arrest him.
