The Cardinal who reports to Vatican cannot threaten to overthrow Sri Lankan governments
Posted on March 17th, 2025
Shenali D Waduge
The Cardinal maybe a citizen of Sri Lanka, but he reports to the Vatican not to the Sri Lankan President. Thus, his orders are based on what the Vatican issues. His address relayed by numerous local media channels raises more questions than answers and whether even legal action can be pursued with regard to the open threat made against the State.
Can the Church be used for political regime change – change govts & oust governments?
This is what the media reported.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1371284874053560&rdid=0zyMWAJS7oTE98OU
We accuss foreign elements of intimidating voters/citizens, yet what can be said about clergy influencing citizens & arousing their sentiments against legitimatally elected governments.
A shameful and unprecedented undemocratic situation was created in 2022 when the Church stood guilty with all other co-opted players that rallied people to go against the laws of the land, defying law & order to oust an elected leader.
The Cardinal even called the protestors an inspiration for the country” while urging the leaders to go home”.
Mr. Sena Thoradeniya captured the culture of the protestors that Cardinal praised with precision & detail. https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2022/09/03/culture-of-galle-face-protesters/
The so-called peaceful protestors eventually left tax payers to pay millions in damages & compensation having burnt houses, precious personal belongings that can never be replaced, vehicles, property and illegally occupied State buildings while stealing, damaging, destroying what belonged to the State. Some of these ancient artefacts were destroyed beyond repair.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=570342061242556 – Cardinal & protestors 2022
The ousted President even accused the Church of having a role in his ouster.
This is why the sitting President should not take the veiled threats by Cardinal lightly.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/sri-lankan-ex-prez-accuses-church-of-having-role-in-his-ouster/104471
The former President Gotabaya Rajapakse in his book The Conspiracy to oust me from the Presidency” claims the Church played a key role in the protests that blamed him for the economic crisis.
Some excerpts from his book,
The most visible presence at the Galle Face protests was that of the Roman Catholic clergy,”.
The Catholic clergy would ‘turn up every morning for the protests’”.
Catholic priests and nuns came out openly onto the streets,”
On 9 July 2022 when mobs took over the President’s House, Catholic priests and nuns were seen among the intruders,”
I and my wife would occasionally be invited to dinner with the cardinal.”
The Easter Sunday attacks took place on 21 April 2019. 279 innocent people including 37 foreign nationals were murdered by 8 Islamic suicide bombers who attacked 3 churches & 3 hotels.
Inspite of the perpetrators being 8 Islamic fanatics it was none other than the Cardinal himself who claimed a foreign conspiracy” to destabilize Sri Lanka behind the Easter attacks in July 2019 & that the power struggle between Sirisena & Ranil ignored attention to national security. He went on to say they weakened & demoralized the intelligence services to please their international partners & international NGOs”.
However, INTERPOL even congratuatled former President Sirisena in August 2019
https://www.defence.lk/Article/view_article/480 – 27 Aug 2019
The Cardinal who accused Sirisena-Ranil of demoralizing the intelligence services in July 2019, did a u-turn to accuse the intel & aligning with sensational lies by the infamous C4 channel & even issuing congratulatory messages hours after its release.
Why is Cardinal not accepting Justice Imam’s report? He must present counter facts & evidence & cannot simply be making loose statements. If he has evidence to produce his claims, he must officially table them. Politcally motivated speeches is upsetting peace & disturbing the peace.
Cardinal also called the mass murderers misguided Muslim youth” & even forgave them. The Cardinal even quoted from a report in Divaina newspaper that the head of the Islamic State group Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi (now dead) was being sheltered by the US (but referring to most powerful country”. The Cardinal did not spare the UN too claiming they were only interested in the welfare of the suspects & not the survivors.
Cardinal used the go home” tag in 2019 too when he referred to Sirisena & Ranil as having no backbone”.
Later the Cardinal changed his tune to infer blame on the Rajapakses’s to which the ouster President in his book replied
What was now being alleged in so many words was that eight Muslim fanatics had launched suicide attacks in order to make me president,”
For anyone to suggest that I had the capacity to organize suicide bombings by Muslim terrorists when I was out of power in order to create the political environment needed to bring me to power, is totally absurd,”
In early 2022 when the cardinal started making the accusation that I had somehow orchestrated the Easter Sunday bombings in order to create the political conditions for me to get elected to power, I instructed Sri Lankan Ambassador Mahinda Samarasinghe in Washington to explore the possibility of obtaining the US government’s Federal Investigation Bureau/ Central Intelligence Agency assistance in the investigations,”
The FBI & many other intel agencies immediately landed in Sri Lanka & did conduct their own investigations. These all constitute the international investigations” the Cardinal demands.
https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australian-federal-police/reporting-year/2018-2019-20 – synopsis of Australia’s Police report.
In May 2021, the FBI confirmed Maulavi Naufer as mastermind of Easter bombings.
https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/sri-lanka/ The US Country Report on Terrorism in Sri Lanka 2019 states ISIS-inspired terrorists conducted a series of suicide attacks against churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Day, resulting in hundreds of casualties. Then ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi publicly praised the attacks”
On 8 January 2021, FBI charged 3 Sri Lankans with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.
The men were part of a group of ISIS supporters which called itself ISIS in Sri Lanka.” That group is responsible for the 2019 Easter attacks in the South Asian nation of Sri Lanka, which killed 268 people, including five U.S. citizens”
Two days after the attacks, ISIS claimed credit for the terrorist acts, attributing the murders to Islamic State fighters.” In late April 2019, the then-leader of ISIS praised the attackers for what he called a retaliation against the West” for defeating ISIS the prior month in Baghuz, Syria”
ISIS’s Easter attacks in Sri Lanka killed 268 people, including five Americans, many while they worshiped,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. Today, we charge these defendants with bearing their share of the responsibility for these deaths.”
While Cardinal accused President Sirisena of being spineless, the former President too brought up the mismanagement of Easter Sunday funds to the tune of Rs.500m. The State had given compensation to all victims of Easter Sunday. But can the Cardinal give account of the distribution of funds given to the victims by the Church (not only to Catholics) Can the Church give a breakdown of the disbursement of funds meant for all victims instead of simply refuting President Sirisena’s claims.
The Church claims Rs.460m was distributed only after Sirisena claimed such an amount was received by the Church. Can the victims of he families confirm receiving funds from the Church? Why the self-defense & why wait 5 years for the Church to confirm what Sirisena alleged?
While Cardinal continues to harp on conspiracy theories”, in Oct 2020 the former head of SIS, Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardena told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that nearly 15,000 people would have been aware of an attack 10 days before the attacks (i.e. by 11 April 2019) & this included diplomatic missions & Parliament. How is it that none of the 15,000 who would have known, did not inform the Cardinal or the Church? Or did they? This is something we all have to seriously think about. Did none of the 15,000 inform the Church/Cardinal? Why would they keep such a matter secret knowing that churches were to be targets? Yet, none of the Church fathers were even injured & none of the Parliamentarians attended Easter Sunday mass. Zaharan had been on the red flag list since 2016, SIS had filed 340 reports to arrest Zaharan. SIS head had also written on 7 April 2019 of a possible attack to the CNI Sisira Mendis. All those who failed in their duties have violated Article 41 (1) (2) (3)
How much money has been spent on these Commissions based on Cardinals conspiracy theories? Those who are guilty are not only the suicide bombers but those who knew of an impending attack & did nothing about it. Some of these are back & placed in the same seats. Cardinal is on record asking for them to be put into the same seats!
Cardinal is accused of turning the Church into a political gamechanger. His own speeches have given him away. What he stands guilty of is manipulating people to oust a President in 2022, before that he was also party to the 2015 regime change. Then he played a role in bringing the current govt to power and now he wants to remove from power. There is a judiciary to give judgements, there is an executive to rule the Nation, there is a legislative to create the Acts, the Cardinal has no role in any of these. Cardinal must concentrate on his role not interfere in areas not under his control.
Let us also remind the Church & Cardinal that if we are to demand investigations, the first investigation should be the Church links to LTTE terrorism & why the Church did nothing against the Bishops/Fathers/Sisters who not only openly sided with LTTE terrorism & separatism but unabashedly opened LTTE offices (1970s Bishop Rayappu Joseph opening LTTE’s first international office in London), heads of LTTE fronts, Church that ran LTTE orphanges from which child soldiers were created. This constitutes a grave crime & this should be investigated first.
We have also not forgotten the over 500 years of Church crimes during colonial rule, which is being carried forward under neo-colonial banner.
Cardinal’s voice cut is a warning to President – who must now wonder whom Cardinal plans to replace him with. Gotabaya was replaced with the 2nd in command, PM RW, is history going to be repeated in less than a year? The President should not wait like the ousted President but formulate a plan to deal with the scenario about to unfold.
Shenali D Waduge