Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

In 1999 the Catholic Church publicly sought forgiveness for the errors, injustices and human rights offences it committed in the past. The Church asked pardon for the sins and weaknesses of Catholics down the ages. Among the Church’s past sins, was “the use of force in order to impose the truth” — an apparent reference to forced conversions.  The Pope was seeking pardon for “the failure to respect and defend human rights.”

 It would be a most opportune time and a gracious gesture on his part, if the Pope who plans on visiting Sri Lanka in the near future, seeks forgiveness from the Buddhists and Hindus of Sri Lanka, for the widespread injustices and human rights violations and offences the Catholic church has committed in the distant and recent past in our motherland.

 SRI LANKA : BRUTALITY OF CATHOLICS

 The CATHOLIC PORTUGUESE with their gun powder and soldiers, brought in a reign of terror to Sri Lanka, our motherland.  They resorted to  ruthless torture and killing of local inhabitants, especially the Sinhala Buddhists, destroying and plundering their settlements, buildings and property, their shrines and places of learning, setting fire to libraries and thousands of ola manuscripts. Buddhist and Hindu shrines and religious edifices which had taken generations to build, renowned Buddhist education institutions and large monasteries  were razed and their priceless treasures looted. All Buddhist temples and places of learning in the maritime areas under the Catholic Portuguese control were demolished.  

 The Portuguese Catholics plundered and destroyed the Citadel of Kotte, which was the administrative capital of the Sinhala Kings from 14^th century.  It was a fortified city known as Jayawardanapura Kotte, and by the 15^th century during the reign of  the famous Sinhala King Parakramabahu VI (1411-1467CE), it had expanded and developed to be a fabulous city.  King Buwanekabahu’s five storied Royal palace and the seven storied palace called Kithsimewanpaya were demolished.

 In 1575, the Portuguese Catholics set fire to the Historic Kelani Raja  Maha Viharaya and destroyed it completely. It was the most important shrine and monastery complex of the island’s Buddhist community,  who accounted for  almost 99% of the population of the country.  All lands that belonged to this Raja Maha Viharaya were taken over and given away to the Catholic Church by Portuguese Catholics. The Colombo fort was constructed with the stones of the destroyed and plundered Kelaniya temple.

 The three storied Sri Dalada Maligawa of Kotte, which was at that time, one of the most spectacular Buddhist structures in the country, was completely destroyed by Portuguese Catholics. Among other monumental Buddhist vihare and Monastery complexes  completely destroyed by Portuguese Catholics were:  

Mapitigama Raja Maha Viharaya,  Wattala Raja Maha Vijharaya, Devinuwara Raja Maha Viharaya and related  buildings besides the Munneswaram Kovila in Chilaw, Ratnapura Saman Devalaya.

 The Portuguese Catholics plundered and destroyed all prominent  Buddhist Seats of Learning, most notably – The famous Vijayaba  Pirvena of Totagamuwa, the Padmavathi Pirivena of Keragala and the Sunethra Devi  Pirivena of Pepiliyana.

These were seats of learning associated with reputed Sinhala Buddhist scholars and literary icons at the time, such as Most Venerable Totagamuwe Sri Rahula and  Most venerable Veedagama Maitreya Nayaka Theras.

 All lands that belonged to these seats of learning were taken away and given to the Catholic church. The valuable books in  temples and places of learning were destroyed. The great Poet monk Weedagama Maithree Thero who wrote Lowedasangarawa and Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula were living in their temple at the time of its demolition by Catholics.

 All Buddhist temples, monasteries and places of learning along the coastal belt  were plundered and destroyed by the Portuguese Catholics, and Buddhist monks associated with these sites were subject to untold harassment and ill-treatment.  Lands belonging to these Buddhist sites were taken over and given to Catholic establishments.

 Never were a glorious civilization and a noble culture more brutally destroyed. The work of centuries was undone in a few years. The Catholic Portuguese period (1505 – 1658) constitutes a long and poignant chronicle of oppression and injustice meted out to the Sinhala Buddhists. The Catholic Portuguese were the first colonial power to pave in this country the way to almost continuous religious tensions – the repercussions of which is felt to this day in Sri Lanka.

 HORROR AND KILLINGS that Mark the History of Christianity

 The Vatican’s Holocaust”,  the book authored by Avro Manhattan,  published by Ozark Books of Springfield, Montana, USA, contains a sensational account of the most horrifying religious massacre of the 20th century. Startling revelations of forced conversions, mass murder of non-Catholics, Catholic extermination camps, disclosures of Catholic clergy as commanders of concentration camps; documented with names, dates, places, pictures and eyewitness testimony.

 The ordinary individual cannot accept as yet the startling facts that only a few years back, for instance, the Catholic Church advocated forcible conversions, helped to erect concentration camps, and was responsible for the sufferings, torturing and execution of hundreds of thousands of non-Catholics – deeds coolly perpetrated by her lay and ecclesiastic members. Furthermore, that many of such atrocities were carried out personally by some of her Catholic priests.

 One of the main purposes of this book is to relate where, when and by whom such atrocities were committed. It took the author almost half a decade of painstaking investigation before he accepted what seemed unbelievable. The result is this account, documented from as authoritative and as varied sources as possible. Among them, people with whom the present writer became personally acquainted. Some of these played no mean role in the religious, political and military events herein narrated. Others were eye-witnesses. Indeed, not a few even victims of the incredible atrocities sanctioned and promoted by the Catholic Church.

 The names of most of the participants, Catholic laymen, military, priests, friars, bishops, archbishops and cardinals, as well as those of their non-Catholic victims, men, women and children, including clergymen, are as genuine as the names of the localities, villages and cities where the atrocities took place.

 Their authenticity can be verified by anyone willing to do so. Documents and photographs of Catholic concentration camps, Catholic mass executions and Catholic forced conversions, some of which are in this book, are kept in the archives of the Yugoslav Government, of the Orthodox Church, of the United Nations and of other official institutions.

The Ecumenical revolution, although seemingly alluring, has shown itself to be nothing more than a Trojan Horse via which Catholic power, apparelled in contemporary garb, continues to assert itself as effectively active as ever. The striking samples of contemporary Catholic terrorization which occurred in Malta and Vietnam, many of which took place during the days of “good old Pope John” and, indeed, under the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, need no elucidation.

They are the most damning proof that the Catholic Church, notwithstanding all her alleged liberalization, fraternization and up-to-dateness, basically, has not changed an iota. The portentous significance of what is here described, therefore, should be carefully scrutinized. Lest the past be repeated in the future. Indeed, now. In the present.

 The Author of this book- Avro Manhattan was the world’s foremost authority on Roman Catholicism in politics. A resident of London, during WW II he operated a radio station called “Radio Freedom” broadcasting to occupied Europe. He was the author of over 20 books including the best-seller The Vatican in World Politics, twice Book-of-the-Month and going through 57 editions.  He was a Great Briton who risked his life daily to expose some of the darkest secrets of the Papacy. His books were #1 on the Forbidden Index for the past 50 years!!  The Vatican’s Holocaust – Revealed at Last!

Courtesy:  http://www.reformation.org/holocaus.html#Contents

 MORE THAN  251 MILLION  KILLED

 History is replete with evidence of horror and death owing to  Christian/Catholic extremism and brutality. The following is a mere outline of the history of ruthlessness and killings by the Christian Church,  in particular by the Catholics, led by the Pope.

 The total number of people killed by the Christian/Catholic church up to the year 1945, or roughly the end of World War II, amounts to more than 251 million (Reference: Deceptions and Myths in the Bible by Lloyd M. Graham, Citadel Press, 1997).  In addition to this figure, several more millions were killed in Christian religious wars/genocides since the WWII, in places such as Vietnam, Rwanda, and elsewhere in the world, including Sri Lanka.  

 KILLINGS DURING THE EUROPEAN DARK AGES”

 Countless millions were killed in religious wars initiated by Catholics during 1400 years of European dark Ages” from 380 to 1812 CE. During the Crusades, from 1095  to 1291 CE,  about 7 million people were killed for Christian religious reasons. One million were killed in the first crusade alone. Thousands were annihilated In the Fourth Crusade – the plunder of Constantinople in 1204 CE (Ref: H. Wollschlager: Die bewaffneten Wallfahten gen Jerusalem” Zurich 1973).

 The European Dark Ages” was a long period of severe repression extending to over 1400 years. It caused utter misery and feelings of hopelessness for the peoples of the so-called Holy Roman Empire” (The Norman Conquest, 1066 CE, only reinforced this repression in Britain. Ref: Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe). These people lived in pain and fear. They were owned nothing except their clothes being villains or serfs working for and owned by the bishop or the aristocrat who lived a life of luxury. People  were not allowed to think outside the scriptures and were not permitted to  talk and share their thoughts, hopes and desires with others. Those accused of such action were considered as criminals and were taken away by monks for torture firstly in their Hell-Holes” and then to a maximum cruelty death. People led lonely, heartbreak lives in which all hope and dreams had died in the struggle to survive in these austere, grim conditions of religious repression.

 In France, during the so called Albigensian Crusade from 1209 -1229 CE, Catholic invaders killed about a million people who were Christians but not Catholic. St Anthony triggered this horrendous massacre by declaring them ‘heretical’ to Catholicism. Pope Innocent- III, ordered their elimination which led to the massacre of these innocents. It was mass-murder and for twenty years the killing went on until almost all were killed and the Vatican much enriched!

 About 60,000 were killed at the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099CE. They included Jews, Muslims, men women and children. In the battle of Askalon, in August 1099, some  200,000 heathens were slaughtered in the name of ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ’. In the Fourth Crusade the sack (plunder) of Constantinople” in 1204 CE, thousands were killed including Orthodox Christians (Ref: H. Wollschlager: :Die bewaffneten Wallfahten gen Jerusalem” Zurich 1973).

 In the Albigensian Crusade in Southern France during 1209 -1229 CE, against the Christian Albigensians (Cathars) of Languedoc, France, about a million innocent people were killed by the Catholics.  St Anthony triggered this horrendous massacre by declaring them ‘heretical’ to Catholicism. Pope Innocent – III, ordered their elimination.  For twenty years the killing went on until almost all were killed.

 An Inquisition was established to search out and destroy the last surviving, hiding heretics. The last of the Cathars was burned at the stake in 1324 CE.  The Inquisitions were so ruthless; about 10 million people were killed by means of this judicial farce. They were never told the charges against them nor who made them. Most of the accused were first severely tortured in the Dominican (Domini Canes = God’s guard dogs) or Franciscan monks monasteries’ “Hell Holes.” That is how the phrase came into common usage. After the judgment, many were publicly burned alive or strapped into iron body cages and suspended on gibbets to die in public as a reminder to all to ‘believe and baptize – or be damned’ – perish in hell- fire everlasting. (Mark Ch.16. Vs.6)

 Spanish Inquisitor, Torquemada, a former Dominican friar, working between 1480 until 1495 CE was responsible for 10,220 burnings of witches and 97,371 hangings of heretics and otherwise disposed of a total of 114,000 people. Their property was confiscated and handed over to Papal Rome. The wealth of the Vatican is from such activity. (Ref: K-H. Deschner Opus Diaboli Pg. 28). Such a proto-Stalinist state existed for 1400 years until Napoleon swept away the aristocrats in his wars to liberate the slaves of Europe at the start of the 19^th century.

 RELIGIOUS WARS IN THE 15 – 17th CENTURY

 During this time, the Catholic Vatican was fighting the heresy of Protestantism. The North-South 30-years war between the Protestants and Catholics led to 18 million killings in Germany alone. In the 15th century a crusade against the Hussites of mid Europe resulted in the slaying of thousands of people (Karl-Heinz Deschener Opus Diaboli Pg.30). In 1572, in France, about 20,000 Huguenots were killed on the command of pope Pius V and 200,000 fled France to England, and other places [Ref: K-H. Deschner Opus Diaboli, Pg.31].

 In the 17th Century, Catholics sacked the city of Magdeburg, Germany and roughly 30,000 Protestants were slain. In a single church some fifty women were found beheaded reported poet Friedrich Schiller, and the infants still suckling the breasts of their dead mothers” (Stannard: American Holocaust,” Oxford University Press 1992).

 KILLINGS IN AFRICA  AND SOUTH AMERICA

 From about the mid 15th century until about the 19th century about 55 million African Negro slaves were shipped to the America’s by Christians, of whom some 40 million died on the way due to mistreatment by their Christian captors.

 In the late 15th century, Spanish conquests of the New World – the Central and South America was made possible by the massacre of some 60 million indigenous people. They were subject to religious torture and slaughter, or diseases were introduced to kill them.  After the Pope allocated the Americas to the Spanish crown with the instructions to colonize on authority from GOD, and to bring the conquered people to GOD, the Conquistadores had an unlimited license to kill and plunder.

 They exterminated the magnanimous Inca, the Aztec and the Mayan Civilizations considered to be among the most civilized and intelligent people that lived on earth at the time. They  obliterated the harmless native peoples of the Caribbean (Stannard: American Holocaust” Oxford University Press 1992).

 QUOTE:

*The Spanish cut off the arm of one, the leg or hip of another, and from some, their heads at one stroke, like butchers cutting up beef and mutton for market. Six hundreds were slain like brute beasts including the cacique, (children) were thus slain like brute beasts.. Vasco (de Balboa) ordered forty of them to be torn to pieces by dogs.”  (Stannard: American Holocaust” Oxford University Press 1992, Pg 83.)

 A total of about  60 million Native Americans were killed through religious torture and slaughter, or forced, unnatural Christian clothing or diseases introduced by the Conquistadores. As a result, the Negro slave trade became necessary to develop these countries and exploit the agricultural wealth they found.

 These Spanish Catholics now needed labourers for their new  plantations and building of Spanish towns in the Americas. African Negro slaves being unbaptized” were considered little more than animals to be used, beaten or disposed of by their  Bible-believing European Christian owners. Negro Slave labour was necessary to exploit the resources of these countries  and to develop them to serve the needs of the Christians.

 AFRICAN NEGRO SLAVES 

 Of the 55 million African Negro slaves-shipped to the Americas about  40 million died in transit,  due to mistreatment by their Christian captors. Why African Negros?  – because the Conquistadores had killed off most of the peoples of Central and South America – millions! Now they needed labourers for the plantations and building of the Spanish towns.  African negro slaves were UNBAPTISED, so in those days, considered as little more than animals to be used, beaten or disposed of as the owner wished.  It was all of no importance to Bible-believing Christians.’

 THE NAPOLEONIC WARS (1800-1815 CE.)

 It all started with the French Revolution (1789-1799 CE.) against trade cartels, the Catholic King and the aristocrats.  The Revolution rolled back the influence of the Catholic aristocracy, first in Paris, then with Napoleon’s help in France in general. When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 CE., he put an end to the Inquisition there. In the monastery of Dominican Monks in Madrid  Nepoleon’s troops found  torture chambers full of prisoners, all naked and many were insane. The French troops being used to cruelty and blood, could not stomach the sight. They emptied the torture chambers, laid gunpowder to the monastery and blew the place up. (From Vicars of Christ” by Professor Peter de Rosa. Published by Corgi books (1998). Wars with other countries of Europe then drew in the European powers and Russia into conflict with Napoleon and he was defeated in battle in 1815. 

 FASCIST World War II

 In CROATIA 1942-43, Dictator Ante Pavlek, a close friend of the Pope, had numerous extermination camps run by the Catholic Ustasha. Many of the killers were Franciscan friars who stabbed, shot or burned alive about 700,000 Greek Orthodox Serbs. The process yielded the conversion of 250,000 Serbs to Catholicism – even acculturalising them as Croats. Pavlek was given 20 Kgs. of human eyes afterwards, to relish. The Pope knew about these camps but did nothing to stop them. (A.Manhatten – The Pope’s Holocaust, Springfield, 1986)

 Fascism has its roots in early Christian Rome with its “Fasces” axe the symbol of authority. Early Catholics wanted: One God, One Religion for all” and strength from unity” by which means they could impose centralized control and order.”  These ideas were adopted by the leaders of Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, and Pavlec’s Croatia (and Franco in Spain) – all attained authority with the help and blessings of the Pope. World War II has caused the death of a grand total of  51,000,000 people.

CATHOLIC TERROR IN VIETNAM 

 From mid 1950’s onwards, Catholic terror in Buddhist VIETNAM led to the killing of about a million people. Fanatic Catholic dictator Ngo Dinh Diem issued U.S. Food Aid only to Catholics.  Buddhists had to pay for what they received. Thousands of Buddhist protesters and monks were imprisoned in detention camps.” Huge numbers are involved: 500, 000 were incarcerated, 80,000 were executed, etc. Soon, the prisons became no-nonsense death camps. Out of protest, dozens of Buddhist teachers – male and female – and monks, poured petrol over themselves and burned themselves to death. And, what is important to note is that to support this ruthless Catholic regime, thousands of American GIs lost their lives.

 Fanatic Catholic dictator Ngo Dinh Diem would issue U.S. Food Aid only to Catholics. Buddhists had to pay for what they received. Thousands of Buddhist protesters and monks were imprisoned in detention camps.” Huge numbers are involved:     500, 000 were incarcerated, 80,000 were executed, etc. Soon, the prisons became no-nonsense death camps.

 Out of protest, dozens of Buddhist teachers – male and female – and monks, poured petrol over themselves and burned themselves to death (NOTE : Buddhists burned themselves, contrary to Christians who usually burn others) And, to support this Catholic regime, thousands of American GIs lost their lives.

Vietnam is a traditional Buddhist country that faced more than three decades of armed aggression by imperial powers. Even after the country was liberated it stood divided since the French Catholics held on to its south. Even after the ignominious defeat of the French following the epic battle of Dien Bien Phu and their evacuation the United States stepped in to replace French occupation.

The Vietnamese did not give up or surrender. They fought the world Super Power relentlessly in face of carpet bombing which scorched out entire villages. They matched the superior technology of the United States’ war machine with innovation, skill and international solidarity. The US lost one third of its Air Force in Vietnam. It taught the world a lesson. That is, no nation united in its resolve to defend its sovereignty can be defeated. It is not by resolve alone that they won. They won through sacrifice, immense sacrifice.

 RWANDA MASSACRES 1994 CE.

 In 1994, Up to 3 million people were massacred in religion based genocide, all aided and abetted by Christian priests.  B.B.C. News April 19, 1998  announced that  A court in Rwanda has sentenced two Roman Catholic priests to death for their role in the genocide of 1994 in which a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Pope John Paul said the priests must be made to account for their actions. Different sections of the Rwandan Church have been widely accused of playing as active role in the genocide of 1994  …

 It would be a most opportune time and a gracious gesture on his part, if the Pope who plans on visiting Sri Lanka in the near future, seeks forgiveness from the Buddhists and Hindus of Sri Lanka, for the widespread injustices and human rights offences the Catholic church has committed in the distant and recent past in our motherland.

 

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

KURUNEGALA