New chapter of Colombo Archdiocese history – By E. Weerapperuma

Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam

The Episcopal Consecration of Monsignor Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam will take place today (29) at St. Lucia’s Cathedral, Kotahena, Colombo.

Members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka along with a limited number of priests and religious leaders representing the Archdiocese and other dioceses are expected to be present at the consecration ceremony. His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo will be the officiating prelate at the Episcopal Consecration.

Karampom, also known as the “Little Vatican” in Kayts, Jaffna, the birthplace of the Auxiliary Bishop-Elect Anton Ranjith hailing from Our Lady of Refuge Parish, Jaffna, has been the fertile land claimed to have given seven bishops so far and Msgr. Pillainayagam is the eighth. He is a close relative of Trincomalee Bishop Emeritus His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph Kingsley Swampillai.

Michael Anthony Pillainayagam

Anton Ranjith is one of the twins born to Michael Anthony Pillainayagam, an officer attached to the Central Bank of Ceylon, Colombo, and Miriam Dharma Pillainayagam on September 23, 1966. Ajith, his brother, now lives in Canada.

Pillainayagam family, temporary residents in Kotahena, paved the way for their two sons to enter St. Benedict’s College in 1973 to begin their schooling. But with the sudden death of their father, Mrs. Pillainayagam, the mother of the two small kids went back to Jaffna and the children were admitted to St. Patrick College, Jaffna. They completed their primary and secondary education at that school.

Master Anton Ranjith left St. Patrick College, after sitting for Advanced Level Examination (1985) and entered St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary to pursue his priestly studies. Having completed his studies in Philosophy, he sought permission from the Local Bishop to enter University Studies as he had been selected. But the Local Bishop refused permission and he left with a heavy heart, on the advice of a priest who guided him. He then entered Jaffna University and obtained his BSc Degree in Mathematics (Statistics) from Jaffna University.

Due to escalating violence in Jaffna, Anton with his mother came to Colombo. Ajith, his brother was already residing in Colombo at that time. Having found shelter in Wellawatte, Anton was looking for employment and at the same time, he began giving tuition. The idea of entering the Vineyard of the Lord, as a priest, was still with him. He conveyed his desire to become a priest to a trusted person and found the way to enter Borella Minor Seminary in 1975, with the help of Bishop Emeritus Swampillai and ever willing the then Colombo Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Nicholas Marcus Fernando. He began learning Sinhala and then joined the Our Lady of Sri Lanka Seminary in Kandy, in the same year to pursue his Scripture and Theological studies.

At the completion of the Theological studies, with Baccalaureate in Theology from the Pontifical Urbanian University, Rome, he received his diaconate and was ordained a Priest of God on September 16, 2000, by Archbishop Fernando who had gladly admitted him to be a candidate to the priesthood from Colombo Archdiocese, five years earlier.

Having spent a few years as a member of the tutorial staff of Catholic Colleges in Colombo, Fr. Anton was sent to United Kingdom Middlesex University in 2004, to continue his studies in Education. Having obtained his Masters in Educational Science, he returned to the country in 2005. Back in Sri Lanka, he served in the tutorial staff of Colombo Catholic Colleges including both St. Joseph’s Maradana and St. Peter’s Bambalapitiya. He was serving as the Rector of St. Sebastian College, Moratuwa, when His Holiness Pope Francis on July 13, named him the Third Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Colombo.

His appointment as the Third Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo opens a new chapter as there is a very large number of Tamils living in the Western Province who will have a Shepherd who not only understands Tamil language but also their rites, rituals and customs. Thus, the appointment of Msgr. Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam is undoubtedly a beginning of a new era in the Sri Lanka Catholic Church history and that of the Colombo Archdiocese, as well. He, a man all the way from the Jaffna Peninsula born and bred, belonging to another community manifests well and enlightens the true meaning of the word “Catholic”.

It is a historical fact that the Catholic Church takes her roots on the Sri Lanka soil during the arrival of missionaries beginning from St. Joseph Vaz, whom His Holiness Pope Saint John Paul II, named as the Apostle of Sri Lanka, when the Saintly Pope came to Sri Lanka in 1995 to beautify the then Ven. Joseph Vaz, who laboured sacrificing his life and time to spread the ‘Good News’ – the ‘Word of God’.

The influx of missionaries to the land of our birth, helped the faith flourish in the midst of calamities and persecution during the times of foreign powers ruling the destinies of Sri Lanka and at a time then Ceylon as one missionary territory to the then diocese of Cochin, established on February 4, 1557, by Pope Paul IV, appointing a Dominican priest Very Rev. Fr. Dom George Temudo as its administrator.

According to available Church records, Pope Gregory XVI on December 3, 1834, created an independent diocese in Sri Lanka. On February 17, 1845, taking a further step, the Holy See created the Colombo Diocese. Pope Leo XIII elevated Colombo Diocese to the status of Metropolitan Archdiocese on September 1, 1886. Pope Pius XII changed the name, to be known as Archdiocese of Colombo, in Ceylon, on December 6, 1944 and Pope Paul VI, on May 22, 1972, the very day Sri Lanka became a Republic, took steps to simply refer to it as the Archdiocese of Colombo.

A historic event took place with the transfer of Sri Lanka Church affairs to the native Sri Lankans, with the appointment of Coadjutor Bishop Thomas Benjamin Cooray OMI, then serving under the then Archbishop Jean Marie Masson OMI. Archbishop Thomas Cooray (1944–1976) entered history as the second Sri Lankan to be a bishop and once more created history by becoming the First Sri Lankan to become a Cardinal.

His Eminence Thomas Benjamin Cardinal Cooray OMI was responsible for creating the Auxiliaries to the Archdiocese beginning from 1962 with the appointment of Rev. Fr. Anthony de Saram His Auxiliary with the approval of Rome. In the line of Auxiliary Bishops’ history, Msgr. Anton Ranjith Pillianayagam enters his name as the tenth Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo Archdiocese.

The Bishop-Elect is conversant in all the three languages in use in the country. His ability to speak in all the major languages in use in the country will help him a long way in serving Colombo, a diocese of mixed and affluent communities.