The pope was greeted fervently by the crowd. Hundreds of thousands of people — 300,000 according to the Vatican-like website Il Sismografo — had massed over the 30 km from the airport to the city center, slowing down the discovery Range Rover on which the pope saluted them standing in sweltering heat.
The pope had begun as soon as he got off the plane to preach reconciliation, unity and inter-religious dialogue, the leitmotif of this move that comes just after the surprise election of a new president.
In a country still divided between Sinhalese and Tamils, the Church plays a special role since there are Catholics in both communities.
Thirty-seven years of conflict between the army and the Tamil separatist rebellion in Sri Lanka until 2009, where massacres on both sides left deep wounds.
‘Healing’ by ‘truth’
“The great work of reconciliation must provide for material needs but also, and more importantly, it must promote human dignity, respect for human rights and the full integration of all members of society,” he warned.
Respect for human rights is a highly sensitive issue in Sri Lanka, as its leaders have refused to cooperate with the UN investigation into allegations of war crimes against civilians at the end of the conflict.
“The healing process requires including the search for truth, not to reopen old wounds, but rather as a means of promoting justice, healing and unity,” the pope stressed.
He had been welcomed by the newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena and promised an independent investigation into the alleged war crimes charges under the presidency of his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapakse.
“All members of society must work together, all must have a voice. All must be free to express their concerns, their needs, their aspirations and their fears,” the pope continued.
Traditional dances, elephants covered in multicolored adornments, a dense and joyful crowd cheered the pope, as well as numerous giant signs: “We say welcome to Holy Father. Pope Francis, we love you,” said one.
A meeting of the pope with the bishops had to be cancelled, as the pope was delayed on his way from the airport to the city center, said the pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.
Although the explanation for the fatigue has not been advanced, the pope appeared “exhausted” after the trip from the airport under a warm sun, a Sri Lankan official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A very short night for a 78-year-old man and jet lag may have contributed to this cancellation.
On the plane, he appeared very fit, greeting all the passengers, and telling French journalists that he had “prayed for France” after the attacks that killed 17 people last week.
A first saint in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, a country with 70% Buddhists, 12% Hindus, 10% Muslims, only a minority of 7% are Christians. “I want to help you encourage and deepen the different forms of interfaith dialogue,” he said at the airport, before meeting with leaders of other religions in the evening.
In recent years on the island, radical Buddhist groups have attacked churches and mosques to denounce, they say, the influence of these religious minorities.
On Wednesday, the pope is scheduled to celebrate a seaside mass in Colombo that could attract a million people. On this occasion, he canonized Sri Lanka’s first saint, Joseph Vaz, a missionary who came from India at the end of the 17th century and had stopped the persecution of Catholics.
A highlight of his visit, the pope will then visit the Marian Shrine of Madhu, in the Tamil zone, in a region where war has been intense.
