CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

SANGHA TAKES ON JUDICIARY

By Mario Perera, Kadawata

I refer to the following newspaper headlines which appeared this morning. These two articles indicate in no uncertain terms the pitiful condition into which religions have fallen in recent times. If they have so ‘fallen’ it is because they ‘were falling’ during a much longer period of time.This not only bears on the conduct of the ‘sangha fraternity’ as their spokesman calls it, but also on other religions, especially on the Catholic Church which claims to be the custodian of divine revelation. This also goes to show the disastrous effects ‘playing politics’ has on Buddhist monks and catholic priests who are the principal subjects of my article considering that they are the most vociferous.

I must admit having a problem with terminology used with regard to monks and the catholic hierarchy. In the recent articles regarding the antagonism between monks and the chief justice, the terms ‘maha sangha’ and ‘sangha fraternity’ are used. Do they refer to the same entity? Apparently yes but the contrary also seems plausible. The ‘maha sangha’ would include the ‘mahanayakes’ of the various chapters, principally the ‘malwatte’ and ‘asgiriya’ chapters.Yet as regards this conflict which has taken a turn for the worse, the mahanayake of the ‘asgirya’ chapter upholds the law and the supremer court traditions as spelled out by the chief justice as opposed to the interpretations of the so called ‘sangha fraternity’. This would seem to draw a divisive line between ‘sangha fraternity’ and ‘maha sangha’. In other words ‘sangha fraternity’ would seem to be a loosely coined expression.

The opinions expressed by the mahanayake of the asgiriya chapter are diametrically opposed to those of the so called ‘sangha fraternity’. “When the judges enter the court or when the speaker enters parliament they arrive with a symbol representing that institution and everyone stands up until the judge or the speaker is seated. That is the accepted tradition,” Buddharakkitha Thera said. However the venerable mahanayake would also know that such ‘accepted traditions’, as he calls them are NOT conformed to by monks. So there is a major rift on these issues between at least one mahanayake and this body of monks called the ‘sangha fraternity.

This latter body is also planning massive demonstrations against the chief justice and the particular law which is the bone of contention. One such demonstration is an all night ‘sabda puja’. If the main motive behind this demonstration is political and anti-chief justice, is not the religious ceremony itself a pure caricature. Is not the ‘sangha fraternity’ thereby holding the religion of which they are custodians to ransom for ulterior motives? What does the maha sangha think about it? We at least know that one of them is not a consenting party. This means that the mahanayakes cannot make a common pronouncement on this matter. In other words, while the religious big guns are at loggerheads, the small fry are having a field day brazenly disgracing the religion.

As for this all night protest ‘sabda puja’ does the laity not come into the picture? Loud speakers will be blasting the ‘sabda’ all night of which the ‘puja’ is a fake. The meek, humble, powerless and all enduring laity will be forced to stay awake all night and compelled to listen to the comedy being inacted.

The Catholic Church is probably in a worse plight. It is for all purposes divided into the church of the north and the church of the south. Look at the body of catholic bishops. Formerly the archbishop was, as his title indicates, the head of the Episcopal assembly. Now there is what is called a bishops’ conference and a president elected by the group. The archbishop remains arbishop but the president of the conference is the head of the episcopal ‘conference’. All this is new especially for a religious institution that prides itself in maintaining ecclesiastical traditions. In addition there is a second sri lankan archbishop without a diocese (really speaking an archdiocese, he being an archbishop) here. He is archbishop because he is a high-up in a Vatican office. These titles that are more hoodwink than an exercise of power.

Now while the bishops are being given titles or are giving themselves titles the lesser beings that are the priests are literally running amok. Recently a catholic priest, James Pathinathan, wrote to the UN secretary general with a plea for foreign intervention in Sri Lanka. The bishops of Mannar and Jafnna, his immediate superiors washed their hands of the matter stating that those were his ‘personal views’. The famous bishops’ conference (bishops and the two archibishops) either had no voice or purposely remained dumb; no see, no hear, no talk as the monkeys once said.

Then worse still, a die hard L.T.T.E.supporter Fr.S.J.Emmanuel (Professor and doctor…) has made similar utterances from Germany.This individual shocked the consciences of lay catholics in this country by publicly proclaiming L.T.T.E. suicide bombers to be martyrs, and deserving of catholic burial. On that scandalous occasion too the assembly of bishops remained mute.Yet the statement was appalling, by a man who had been vicar-general of Jaffna and rector of the Jaffna major seminary for priests, St.Zaviers seminary. The bishops with their self attributed titles and Vatican designated titles remained silent. As the Latin proverb goes: qui tacet consentire videtur. He who is silent would seem to consent. The only catholic who took the scandalous priest to task, totally refuting his assertions was the writer of this article.

However the bishops with titles and all woke up from their dogmatic slumber when Fr Tisa Balasuriya wrote a booklet attributing some very fundamental maternal ideas about her son to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was excommunicated, deriled and defamed over a long period of time without ever being heard in his defense, before sanity prevailed and the excommunication called off. Fr.Balasuriya it will be remembered is a priest who made unparalleled contributions to Church and society.

This would show all and sundry that ethnicity and language have a greater binding force on human minds, hearts and will than religion. The Catholic Chuch which has followers on both sides of the communal divide, is totally divided along ethnic and linguistic lines. The Buddhist monks, who hardly had confreres on the other side, are nevertheless divided among themselves. A religion dominated society more than 2500 years in existence is waking up to the fact that all that the religions preached was ‘sounding brass and tinkling cymbal’. He next time we hear the all night ‘sabda puja’ or the pompous utterances of the catholic bishops conference (president, archbishops and all) we will be reminded how we, the laity, are being led by our noses by groups of gaily decked ambitious individuals brandishing sterile designations, thinking of their survival and not that of the country.

Mario Perera
Kadawata

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