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Pope’s visit: Catholic Church in Catch 22 crisis
Senior police and government officials and Catholic Church representatives will meet early next week to discuss security and other arrangements for the visit of Pope Francis in mid-January amidst continuing security concerns if the visit coincides with a possible Presidential election.
A senior church official told the Sunday Times arrangements would have to be finalised before the visit of a Vatican delegation to Sri Lanka from November 2. He said security would be a key issue they would be looking at.The moves came as the Catholic Church was still awaiting a response to a letter sent by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith to President Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking clarification on whether the visit of Pope Francis could go ahead or be cancelled because of a possible Presidential election in early January.
The security measures to be discussed would include emergency-evacuation methods in case of unrest or any other related trouble in the wake of a presidential election, the official added. The delegation comprising senior officials of the Vatican’s Protocol Division is expected to be in Sri Lanka for at least three days, Catholic Church Spokesperson Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini told the Sunday Times.
Fr. Cyril Gamini, who is the director of the media and information committee for the papal visit, said the pontiff’s visit from January 13-15 would take place as planned and necessary arrangements were being made. He said the Catholic Bishops Conference also met on Friday to discuss the Pope’s visit.
Meanwhile other sources said the Catholic Church was placed in a ‘catch 22’ situation regarding the Pope’s visit. They said the Catholic Church on one hand had to oblige the Government which was adamant to go ahead with the papal visit despite a planned Presidential election around the same time. If the Church advised the cancellation of the visit, Government leaders might feel the Church had no faith in them.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka’s Catholic population and even others would feel let down if the papal visit was put off on the advice of the church, they said.
The sources said the Catholic Church was concerned with the ground situation that could prevail immediately after a high profile election. They could be even post-poll disturbances, curfews and other restrictions on movement.
If anything like this happened, the Catholic Church would have to take full responsibility for the outcome and it would portray the Pope’s visit in a poor light.