Christmas solidarity beyond the crisis

Responding to an appeal by Card Malcom Ranjith, Sri Lanka’s Catholics are celebrating Christmas this year by handing out food parcels to the poorest families and to prisoners, undertaking initiatives in favour of the humblest workers, and decorating the Christmas tree with messages about the hardships people are facing at present.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lanka’s Catholic communities are not preparing to experience Christmas like other years because of the country’s economic crisis, which has had serious consequences for families.

For this reason, responding to Card Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, Catholics have undertaken different initiatives to support people in need on the festive occasion.

"The real Christmas is sharing the love of Jesus with others’” said Father Basil Rohan, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of Sri Lanka, speaking to AsiaNews.

“For us today it means responding to the hunger of people struggling against the serious economic crisis in our country. Those who today have must share with those who suffer. Across the country, we have distributed bags with groceries to those most in need.”

In the Diocese of Colombo, with the participation of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith himself, forty total blind families, fifty deaf-mute children and thirtyfive disabled children received dry rations and food parcels, as well as backpacks, stationery and shoes for school.

Food parcels, dry groceries, schoolbags, and textbooks for children were also provided to ninety-nine families who live at a tea plantation, mostly Hindus and Catholics, in the Diocese of Kandy; one hundred families in the Diocese of Kurunegala also received aid, as did one hundred families in the Diocese of Batticaloa, one hundred families in the Diocese of Trincomalee, eighty families in a village in the Diocese of Chilaw still affected by the tsunami, one hundred families in the Diocese of Galle, plantation workers, and eighty other families on Kalpitiya Island.

The Pontifical Mission Societies responded to a request from a Colombo prison and shared Christmas with inmates by donating men’s and women’s clothes. It also provided food parcels to sanitation workers in metro Colombo. “They thanked us warmly."

In Negombo, students from St Joseph's College held a food fair at the school to raise money for 19 low-paid workers who maintain the school and need financial help for medicines and food: "Our students wanted to share their Christmas with these workers,” said Sister Priyanka Perera, head of the school’s advanced level classes, speaking to AsiaNews.

At the Picchamalwatta Child Development Centre, Mutwal (Colombo), celebrations were very low-key. Instead of the usual decorated Christmas, the children hung messages about the problems they face at home and in school, such as "The price of shoes is very high", "malnutrition has increased", "there is no money to buy books", "there is no powdered milk", "drugs are consuming us”, asking the birth of Jesus to bring them relief.

“Because of the country’s economic problems, we celebrate this Christmas in a very simple way,” said Fr Rohan Silva, director of the Centre for Society and Religion in Colombo. “But his message is very profound. The fact that the Son of God came to live with us means that we are valued people, regardless of the state in which we live. This is why we must love God by loving others.”

• sri lanka
• christmas
• celebrations
• poor
• catholic communities
• card malcom ranjith