Exposing the Hypocrisy of The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka

Ramani D.Wickramaratne
August 25, 2008

In The Aftermath of Apostolic Father Lalith Aponso’s CD Launch at BMICH on 19th July 2008–

Is This The Way to Consolidate Religious Amity with Buddhists?

—- The Centre for Buddhist Action—–

Ramani D.Wickramaratne

The insensitive and hurtful nature of the Catholic Church against Buddhist sentiments was explained in an article by The Centre for Buddhist Action in July 2008 titled “Insensitive and Hurtful Agenda of The Catholic

Church in Sri Lanka” when they explained the manner in which Apostolic Rev.Father Lalith Aponso insulted one of the most respected and revered Buddhist Monks in Sri Lanka the late Most Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maithriya Nayake Thero by distorting the truth through his much publicized advertising stunt to promote a CD launch titled “Life After Death and Karma” at the BMICH on 19th July 2008. The previous day  18th July happened to be the death anniversary of the late Venerable Monk.

From April this year, this Apostolic Father placed advertisements, got journalists to write articles to the paper and held a TV interview on TNL about his much publicized CD launch on “Life After Death and Karma” which he said was first recorded in cassette form and had been listened to by the late Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maithriya Nayake Thero in 1994. He even quoted one sentence which was supposedly a statement made by the late Venerable Monk which he used for his advantage in the hope that he could draw massive young Buddhist crowds to the BMICH Main Hall on 19th July. The entire city of Colombo and even suburban areas were pasted with colour posters depicting Ven.Ananda Maithriya Thero on one side and Lalith Aponso on the other side informing the public about the CD launch. The first batch appeared just the day before Wesak Full Moon  which is a very sacred day for Buddhists and the second batch appeared before Poson Full Moon the idea he tried to portray was that!
his sermon was connected to Buddhist philosophy on Rebirth. Tickets for this event were priced at Rs.1,500/-, Rs.2,000/- and Rs.2,500/-

To make the event even more glamorous, he invited famous singers who fortunately did not turn up for the event. Chanting of Vannams and Kandyan dancing conducted Lalith Aponso to the Main Hall of the BMICH which was 75% empty which had surprised him very much as he had expected to have a full house. Instead of the large numbers of Buddhist Monks he had expected to see inside the hall, he was able to witness only about 25 Buddhist Monks of whom 22 had been very young Samanera Monks probably brought in by Ven. Ambegoda Kusalagnana Thero who chaired the proceedings and also appeared on TV to promote Father Lalith Aponso.

Now comes the revealing part of the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. During a period of 3 months from April 2008 upto 19th July 2008 while Father Lalith Aponso was doing his commercial advertising, the Bishop’s Conference and the Archbishop Rt.Rev. Oswald Gomis who is head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka all kept dead silent in the hope that the event would end up as a massive success we think. It is extremely difficult to imagine that an event organised with such details on top of which an unimaginable amount of money would have been spent on posters, newspaper advertisements, printing of entrance tickets plus the purchase and recording costs of those CDs could have been done without the blessings of the Catholic Church.

In the “Messenger” which is the English weekly of the Catholic Church and “Gnanartha Pradeepa” its Sinhala version of 20th July (mind you one day after the event), The Bishop’s Conference issues a statement which they state was to inform the public that the person named Lalith Aponso was not a Catholic Father nor an Apostate of the Catholic Church. Both the English and Sinhala reports are attached herewith for easy reference to enable readers to grasp fully how the Catholic Church works. This, hopefully will also enlighten and open the eyes of some of our well known Buddhist Monks who are “hob-knobbing with them” in the form of Inter-religious amity and harmony!

The big question is- are we to believe that none of the members of The Bishop’s Conference did not know or see the eye catching posters pasted on either side of the streets of Colombo for two months? Did they not wish to enquire from Lalith Aponso why he was doing it using the name of The Catholic Church? If they are so concerned about building religious amity with Buddhists, why did they remain “deaf, dumb and blind” for 3 months without taking necessary disciplinary action against a man who was “posing off as an Apostate” if he did not belong to the Catholic Church? Did the Bishop’s Conference not feel it to be their duty and responsibility to respect our Buddhist Monks more so those that had departed from this worldly life like the late Most Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maithriya Thero? If Father Lalith Aponso was ” an imposter” why did they not make a public statement to that effect in the Sri Lankan newspapers for the real public to know that he did not ha!
ve the blessings of The Catholic Church for this event?

We remember all too vividly how the Catholic Church went into “express action mode” when news arrived about the release of Dan Brown’s film “Da Vinci Code” which was permitted to be screened even in Italy -the home of the Catholic Headquarters- BUT they got it banned from being imported or screened in Sri Lanka! However, they opted to turn a blind eye when one of their supposed Apostates insulted one of our most respected Buddhist Monks who passed away 10 years ago. We also remember how they went to the extent of lodging a police complaint at Colombo Police Station and sealed a publishing house in Colombo when they heard that a book critical and unfavourable towards Catholic beliefs and sentiments was about to go into the bookstores-they burnt the entire stock that was printed!
With all the slogans of ” inter-religious amity and harmony” that the Catholic Church Fathers dole out to unsuspecting Buddhists, this is proof that their intentions are not sincere and honest but a slogan needed to be used when it suits them and to their advantage. Let us hope that this will certainly be an “eye-opener” to all Buddhist Monks who move around with them and think that they are truly sincere. Under these circumstances, can we ever hope to get just and fair redress in situations like “unethical conversions” where it would be the Christians who would be the perpetrators and Buddhists would be the victims? Would it not be another case of the Sinhala saying ” Horage Ammagen Pena Ahanawa Wage”
The Buddhist viewpoint on religious harmony and amity is certainly not this method but true and honest reciprocal understanding and respect for one another irrespective of one’s religious beliefs. Buddhists have so far never ever overstepped the boundaries as much as the Christians have done so far. Let us sincerely hope that what we witnessed with the Lalith Aponso CD launch on “Life After Death and Karma” and the manner in which the Bishop’s Conference and more so The Archbishop Rt.Rev.Father Oswald Gomis acted in this particular instance. If they genuinely wished to warn the general public as it is stated in the Catholic weekly, then publishing such a statement in their own weekly is not the way to do it.

Attached: 20th July Sinhala and English Versions of Catholic Messenger/Gnanartha Pradeepa

COURTECY: http://www.crusadewatch.org/

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