Colombo (AsiaNews) - The experience of Pope Francis under
the Argentine dictatorship will help him to assist Sri Lanka in giving justice
to the victims of the civil war. This is according to Ruki Fernando (see
photo), an activist for human rights in Sri Lanka, in an interview with AsiaNews.
The country's Catholics, lay and religious leaders must learn from his humility
and try to implement his call for "a Church of the poor and for the
poor." Below is the interview with Ruki Fernando.
What
is your impression of the choice of a Jesuit priest as pope and spiritual
leader of the global Catholic population?
For me, the religious order is not important, what is important is the vision,
commitment, approach of the person, how much that person is faithful to Jesus's
mission of bringing "good news to the poor". But the openness of
Cardinals to appoint someone from a religious order, particularly one that had
tensions with past Popes, is a positive trend.
What lessons that the Catholics of Sri Lanka - religious and secular
leaders - can learn from Pope Francis?
I don't personally know the new Pope, but based on testimony of many persons
who had known the Pope, I think we can try to learn from his humility - like
using public transport, cooking his own meals, staying in a simple apartment.
And i think the Sri Lankan church leaders can certainly learn from the apology
the present Pope and Argentinean Bishops had offered the people, for their
inaction and silence on disappearances and other human rights violations, during
the dictatorship.
With regard to peace and reconciliation, there is still in a great
crisis in Sri Lanka. Do you believe that the Holy Father will help Sri Lankans
to address this problem and act in a concrete way? If so, in what way?
I think the Holy Father's own experiences during dictatorship, including his
own efforts, achievements and failures, and broader experiences in his country
Argentina and other Latin American countries in truth seeking and
accountability, puts him in a good position to assist Sri Lanka. Given his
stated commitment towards a Church that is poor and for the poor, I hope he
will look at and speak about problems in Sri Lanka from perspective of the
poor. For example, those whose land is occupied by military, political
prisoners, those injured due to war and torture, families of those killed and
disappeared etc. This is not limited to, but should also include dealing firmly
with Sri Lankan authorities about cases of Catholic Priests who had been
killed, disappeared, continue to be threatened and intimidated for their
services and solidarity with the oppressed, the recent threats, intimidations
and discrediting of the Catholic Bishop of Mannar by Government Ministers,
officials and media, and past attacks on Churches by military that led to
killing of civilians seeking refuge from fighting.