(March 02, 2011) Catholic Tamil refugees languishing in Sri Lankan displacement camps
say their calls to military authorities to allow priests in to conduct daily Masses
and other services are still going unanswered. They say many applications for priests
made over the last 18 months have been systematically ignored by military and government
officers. Many are claiming discrimination, questioning why pastors from other denominations
and Hindu priests are allowed to stay in camps, while they have to make do with lay
leaders. Priests are needed to nourish their spiritual lives and offer some comfort
in what is a very difficult situation they say. Around 27,000 people remain in displacement
camps awaiting resettlement following the end of Sri Lanka’s long and bitter civil
war against Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009. All the Catholic priests in the camps
left when some 280,000 people were resettled a few months after the end of the war.
Since then priests visit every Sunday to offer weekly Masses and spiritual services.
“Our lives would be much more bearable if we had a priest with us on a regular basis,”
said Jacob Sinnappu, a 62-year-old refugee at Ananda Kumarasamy transit camp in Menik,
29 kilometres south east of Vavuniya in Mannar diocese. The priests will help give
us strength in difficult times, he said. Pastors of different denominations conduct
Bible studies and services, while Catholics make do with lay leaders conducting evening
prayers and catechism in temporary huts, Sinnappu added.