Cardinal Ranjit: "Hope, the word that describes the spirit that prevails in Lanka"

"Sri Lanka is going through a period of profound political and democratic renewal. Since November 2024, we have had a new president and a new parliament, with an absolute majority, changing the old power structure linked to a corrupt political class guilty of abuse of power and human rights violations. In a country that has emerged from a serious social and economic crisis, a new hope is emerging," said Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, in an interview with Fides. “Hope,” the Cardinal said, is precisely the right word to describe the spirit that prevails in the country today. And we Catholics celebrate the Jubilee of Hope so that our actions, our thoughts, our words, our direction are fully in line with what is happening politically, socially, culturally, and spiritually in the nation.

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In the last election, “a change was expected, and it has happened: a socialist-oriented government is now in office, one that appears honest and committed to the welfare of the people and aware of its responsibilities, a government that intends to combat poverty and care for the well-being of the most disadvantaged social classes,” he notes. “The new government,” he says, “has started a new era and set to work to bring justice to those who have suffered injustice in the past, those who are in prison or have suffered violations of fundamental rights. And it is doing so through legality, with full respect for the principles of the rule of law.” “One area to which the government of new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is devoting resources and attention,” the Cardinal said, “is the country’s economy. It is slowly recovering from the crisis and following the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund, which, in turn, has granted loans. We are in a phase of recovery, and tourism is also in a phase of recovery, and this bodes well, as it is an important sector of our economy that contributes to wealth creation.” “