Editors of the Sunday, October 8, 2023 edition of Gananartha Pradeepa, Sri Lanka’s oldest Sinhala newspaper published by the Catholic Church, condemned the “ridiculous, absurd and failed” attempt by President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Deutsche Welle television to indicate that there is a division in the Catholic Church over the Easter attack investigations. It was mentioned in the sentence. Sri Lanka Latest News
The full excerpt is given below,
In the discussion, the President stated very strongly that the Government of Sri Lanka will never conduct an international investigation. This same President, while serving as Acting President, made a special statement to the nation on July 18, 2022, saying that the absence of a formal investigation into the Easter Sunday attack meant that the matter was still not fully resolved. He further said that due to the incomplete nature of the investigations into the Easter Sunday bombings, the British government and their intelligence agencies necessary assistance will be asked. This changed once he became the President in a period of about a year showing his deceitful and duplicitous practice. It is very clear that they are changing their position in a short period of time with the greedy intention of preserving their power without popular opinion. How can the people of this country trust what such a leader says today?
In that discussion, the President makes several false statements. The President says that he will not discuss the Easter Sunday attack with His Eminence the Cardinal, he discussed it with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference came and discussed it with him. In an inquiry made by Gananartha Pradeepa about this, the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, His Holiness Harold Anthony has clearly stated that the President never met the Catholic Bishops’ Conference to discuss the Easter attack. Also, we know that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference never went to meet the President. If the president of the country makes such completely false statements in front of the international media, not only his personality and reputation will be damaged, but also the reputation of the people of the country he represents.
Also, it is clear that the president is making an unsuccessful attempt in this discussion to show that there are contradictions between the positions of His Eminence the Cardinal and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. But His Excellency Harold Anthony Perera Bishop has clearly told our newspaper that the stance on the national issues of the country as well as on the Easter Sunday attack will be expressed collectively with the agreement of all the bishops.
It is a matter to be asked whether the President did not know that His Eminence the Cardinal and the Archbishop of Colombo are members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, or whether he knowingly makes such false statements to mislead the citizens of our country as well as the international community.
As the President of the country, the abomination of his behaviour in a discussion before the international media should be discussed separately. However, we must emphasize that if he tried to show that there is a division in the Catholic Church by false and misleading statements he made in that discussion, it was a ridiculous, absurd and unsuccessful attempt.”
