Sri Lankan Archbishop denounces bogus ‘priest’ candidate

(March 24, 2010) In Sri Lanka, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo has denounced the use of religion in election campaigns and warned that a candidate, who appears in priestly garb in campaign leaflets is not a Catholic priest. Flyers distributed by the Jathika Sanwardana Peramuna political party have shown their candidate, Janaka Kumaratunga, dressed as a priest. The party has referred to him as a Catholic priest, and the leaflets say that to vote for him is to vote for Christ. Archbishop Ranjith, in a recent statement, said that Kumaratunga does not represent the Catholic Church in any way.
He stressed that the Sri Lankan Catholic bishops have forbidden bishops, priests and Religious ,from actively taking part in politics, such as contesting elections. More than 7,500 people are presently contesting the 225 seats in Sri Lanka’s parliament in the April 8 general election. In a separate press release, Archbishop Ranjith denounced the use of a picture of Christ in a March 22 newspaper advertisement, which urged the public to vote for ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka. Archbishop Ranjith said, “We denounce the use of the sacred image of Jesus Christ for election campaigns. He added that religion should not be exploited to influence people. The prelate urged all political parties and organizers of political campaigns to refrain from using images of Christ or saints to gain political mileage.