Gifts Sri Lanka bishops asked from Pope Francis

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka [Wikimedia commons]

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo presented a letter to Pope Francis during the May 2-3 ad limina visit of 13 Sri Lanka bishops asking the pope to bless Pope Benedict XVI Intitute of Theology for Asia, Sri Lanka’s Catholic newspaper reported recently.

“And during your visit please give us the gift of your blessing on the Theological-pastoral Institute which we have dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI and which will help us in the formation of our future ecclesiastical collaborators,” the Sri Lanka bishops’ conference president wrote in his letter to the pope published in the May 18 issue of Messenger, Sri Lanka’s Catholic weekly newspaper.

The cardinal personally launched the institute in Negombo, western Sri Lanka, funded by the Vatican during the term of Pope Benedict XVI who was expected to visit Sri Lanka for its inauguration, said yesterday’s report from ceylontoday.lk  

Benedict announced Feb. 11, 2013 he would step down as pope at the end of that month.

In his letter to Pope Francis earlier this month, Cardinal Ranjith also appealed for the “gift of the canonization of Blessed Joseph Vaz” who the cardinal described as “the great and humble servant of The Lord.”

Blessed Vaz, a Catholic priest from Goa has come to be called “The Apostle of Ceylon (Sri Lanka’s former name).” He went to Ceylon in the 1600s after hearing of the oppression of Catholics in the Dutch colony.

“He, through heroic pastoral ministry carried out during the 16th and 17th centuries, when our Church suffered an intense persecution at the hands of an anti-catholic colonial power, resurrected the faith in our country and so became the second founder of our Church,” Cardinal Ranjith wrote in his letter to Pope Francis.

Aside from Buddhists and some 1.2 million Catholics among Sri Lanka’s population today, there are sizeable Hindu and Muslim minorities. 


At the time of the pope’s announcement of his January 2015 visit to Sri Lanka, Cardinal Ranjith had not received official confirmation from the Vatican of the pope’s visit to Sri Lanka, ceylontoday.lk quoted Sri Lanka’s communications director saying.

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Pope Francis pulls “whispering” Indian bishop out of retirement

Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil [front row, extreme left], Xth FABC Plenary Assembly, Vietnam, Dec. 2012 / NJ Viehland Photos

I was reviewing documents of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) tonight when I received word that Pope Francis, in a surprise move pulled Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil out of retirement and appointed him to look after a diocese in northeastern India.

I’ve not been around long enough, so I can remember this happening only once when retired Bishop Francisco Claver was appointed to head Bontoc-Lagawe.

 

 

Watch out, retired prelates! We’ll never know what Pope Francis has in store for us.

In congratulating Archbishop Thomas, the prelate who for a long time led the FABC Office of Evangelization , and who coined the phrase “whispering the Gospel to the soul of Asia…”  , I share here excerpts from my interview with him last year shortly after Benedict XVI announced he was stepping down as pope.

The US bishops’ Catholic News Service (CNS) published the report that quoted some of his remarks. Here is the brief of the full report sent to their clients. Here is Catholic Universe  reprint of the story that appeared in a host of other publications.

Read excerpts from the raw version of the interview below and tell me. Prophetic?

NJ Viehland:  What are qualities, attitudes or particular traits or skills that the next pope must have to shepherd the Church though the rest of this post-modern era?

Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil: This is a question for which I can have no answer. The pope is a pope for me, whatever his nationality, character or competence. He is the Vicar of Christ.

But I can say what the world needs today. A violence-ridden world cries for a reconciling agency, force or inspiration in our times: an energy that will bring together nations, civilizations, cultures, traditions, societies, and communities that are in tense relationships; perceptions, philosophies, ideologies, and theological perspectives that are in opposition; one-sided conclusions of sciences and irresponsible ventures of technologies that are on a collision course.

Every insight is valuable for humanity, every school of thought has something to offer, everything that emerges in a context does so by the compulsions of history. They correct and complete each other in the processes of interaction and by the force of history. A holistic and integrative view is soothing.

Asians understand very well that things that seem contradictory can be brought into harmony, an undertaking in which Asians themselves have failed. That is where the power of the Gospel comes in, for Christ brings all things together. It is the mission of the Church to make this possible.

Even though I may not have phrased my idea in the ideal way, I long for a vision of this type emerging in Christian thought. It will be under the leadership of the new Pope that such things can take shape ensuring a hope-filled future for humanity.