Catholicism in Sri Lanka: Unbowed by terrorism, corruption, economic collapse

Though some sources mention 16th-century Portuguese colonialism as the beginning of Christianity in Sri Lanka, many other sources say that Christianity arrived no later than the 5th-century A.D. In fact, some sources claim that Saint Thomas the Apostle (who died in what is now southern India) came to evangelize in the first century.

A Colombo Telegraph article divides Sri Lanka’s Christian history into three eras: precolonial (A.D. 72-1505), colonial (1505-1948), and post-colonial (1948-current).

The Greek Historia Ecclesiastica says that St. Thomas the Apostle preached on the island of Sri Lanka (then known as “Taprobane,” and later known as “Ceylon”).

In the fifth century, some 75 ships of Indian Christian soldiers came to Sri Lanka to support a regional king who had Christian relatives.

The Egyptian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes visited Sri Lanka in 550 A.D. and wrote that “the island has a church of Persian Christians who have settled there.”

A Sicilian cartographer visiting in the 12th century observed that a Sri Lankan king had four Christian advisers (out of 16 total).

The faith spread further after the Portuguese arrived in 1505, and Catholic missionaries followed over the ensuing decades. In 1658, the Dutch forced the Portuguese out of Sri Lanka and then expelled all Catholic priests.

Despite such obstacles, the faith persevered. In one instance, an Indian priest disguised himself as a migrant laborer in order to get to Sri Lanka. He succeeded resoundingly and was eventually canonized as St. Joseph Vaz.

Priests were allowed to return officially in the 1700s. After Sri Lanka came under British occupation in 1815, there was more religious freedom, and more Catholic missionaries came from Europe and India.

The majority of Sri Lankan Christians are Catholic, but both Catholics and Protestants were important in forming Sri Lanka’s education system, raising literacy rates for the general population, as well as founding schools for the disabled, along with healthcare facilities and homes for the aged.

Despite these contributions, anti-Christian sentiment began to rise in the 19th century, as more Sri Lankans began to associate Christianity with colonialism.

Sri Lanka obtained independence in 1948. Ensuing decades saw the Tamil minority ethnic group suffer violent persecution. There was also religious tension, and in 1960 the Sri Lankan government took over the nation’s Catholic schools (the Church regained control of its schools about two decades later).

In 1962, an attempted coup (plotted by both Catholic and Protestant Sri Lankan military officers) against Sinhalese Buddhist leadership raised tensions that have never fully resolved.

The year 1983 marked the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War, in which the Tamil ethnic group sought to break away from Sri Lanka and form their own state in the northern and eastern parts of the island.

This civil war—which lasted until 2009—divided the country and the Church, as there were many Catholics on both sides. Because of this split, the Church was unable to take a firm position during the war.

The Church in Sri Lanka currently has one archdiocese, 11 other dioceses, and 448 parishes. Sri Lankan Catholics comprise 7 percent of the overall population of 22 million.

“There are no rivalries between Catholics and non-Catholic Christian groups,” says Rev. Noel Dias, a longtime Catholic priest in Sri Lanka who is also a former senior lecturer in public international law at the University of Colombo.

The country as a whole, though, continues to simmer with ethno-religious tensions. About three-fourths of Sri Lankans belong to the Sinhalese ethnic group (most of whom are Theravada Buddhist). The largest minority group are the Tamils (mostly Hindu), who comprise about 11 percent of the general population. Over 9 percent of Sri Lankans are descendants of Muslim traders, and some members of this group have proven themselves susceptible to radicalization.

On Easter Sunday 2019, eight suicide bombers detonated themselves and their devices in six separate locations in Sri Lanka. These bombers—almost all of whom came from middle or upper-middle class families—were all reportedly part of a homegrown jihadist group.

They struck three luxury hotels and three churches (two of them Catholic). The official death toll was 269 and several hundred more suffered serious injury. Most of the murdered and maimed were the churchgoers.

In the aftermath of these bombings, the Church was assertive in the effort to prevent retaliation against the Muslim community. Though the Church in Sri Lanka does not want vigilantism, it still wants justice for all the victims and contends that the sophisticated attack went far beyond a handful of misguided men.

At a 2022 press conference, Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith remarked, “There are indications that the authorities wanted the attacks to be carried out.” The cardinal added that Indian intelligence officials had warned about an impending attack but that the Sri Lankan authorities did nothing; he also said that some Sri Lankans in positions of authority stood to benefit politically from the attacks.

Mincing no words, Rev. Dias says, “Not only Christians, but any right-minded Sri Lankan knows that the Easter attack was orchestrated by the leaders who came to power in 2019.”

In 2022, on the third anniversary of the attack, Cardinal Ranjith led an interdenominational group of pilgrims to the Vatican, hoping that Pope Francis might be able to compel Sri Lankan authorities to allow a transparent and thorough investigation.

Such an investigation has yet to take place. Moreover, recent reports point to tension between Sri Lankan bishops and the current leadership after its refusal to allow an international probe into the 2019 Easter attack.

Along with this maddening level of injustice, the country is contending with its worst economic crisis since attaining independence. The crisis started at the time of the 2019 Easter attack and came to a boil in 2022, amid several months of ongoing mass protests.

“The leadership in Sri Lanka was largely responsible for the economic collapse,” says Rev. Dias, adding that, “A particular family has misappropriated a colossal amount of money.”

Rev. Dias relates that there is large-scale unemployment, while at the same time the cost of living has soared, with food prices now three times more expensive. Also, the availability of medicines and doctors “have been drastically reduced,” he says.

Amid such hardships, the Church has endeavored to help the most vulnerable of Sri Lankans. Rev. Dias says that, in addition to Caritas development programs, Catholic parishes have been organizing giveaways of dry food rations, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society has been giving a welfare stipend to the poorest families.

As these efforts show, charity is less elusive than justice.