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Defying the eye of storm: A priest steers his community to safety

Published

10 months ago

2025/12/17

Father Alex Nilantha, administrator of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral, in the Chilaw Diocese, is seen speaking with people at a shelter camp for flood-affected residents after a rescue operation. (UCAN PHOTO)

(UCAN) Long before dawn broke over Chilaw on Sri Lanka’s western coast, Father Alex Nilantha, the administrator of the town’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral, was awakened by the frantic barking of the Church’s dogs.

It was still dark at around 4 a.m. on 28 November, and their persistent scratching at his door cut through the silence with an urgency he couldn’t ignore.

An instinctive sense of danger forced him to look outside — and at the unfolding disaster that would engulf entire villages before sunrise.

The Deduru Oya, a major river in northwest Sri Lanka — the mouth of which empties into the Indian Ocean, near Chilaw, where the Cathedral is located — was already overflowing.

Floodwaters were swallowing streets and rising so fast that rooftops were the only visible markers of where family homes stood.

A small boat, was seen with three villagers struggled against the current on the main road. Without hesitation, Father Nilantha arranged a boat and set forth through the rising waters.

From house to house, through submerged lanes and swirling debris, he and a small team ferried terrified families to safety.

Mothers clutched infants; children cried out from shadowed doorways; the young begged for help for sick relatives.

Clothes floated ,where people once stood, in water more than a meter high in places.

“From six in the morning until six in the evening, we didn’t stop,” Nilantha said. By nightfall, the Cathedral compound had become a refuge for nearly 800 displaced people — Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim alike.

Within hours, people from all religious communities began arriving with truckloads of cooked meals and supplies. “It was solidarity at its purest,” Nalintha said.

Community leaders assured him that they would “not let anyone go hungry,” as if to answer his fears about feeding such a crowd.

“We admire this priest, who stood with us throughout the crisis, looked after us from 29 November to 05 December, and ensured that everyone received food,” said Antony Sebastian, 53, who Nalintha rescued along with his family.

Despite visible signs of exhaustion, Nalintha “went from house to house in a boat, and greeted all with a warm smile and offered them help,” Sebastian said.

As well as caring for those at the Cathedral, Nalintha also took food to shelters in two other parishes, two schools, and coordinated five medical clinics.

Across Sri Lanka, the devastation left by the flooding was staggering — 639 people confirmed dead with 210 missing, entire villages washed away, livelihoods destroyed, and roads and farmlands buried under mud.

As state agencies struggled to cope with the catastrophe, the Catholic Church mobilised one of the country’s largest community-based relief networks.

Torrential rain and strong winds brought by Cyclone Ditwah overwhelmed rivers, triggering widespread flooding and landslides across the island.

Churches across the country set up emergency shelters. Parishes prepared meals, arranged medical care, organised volunteers to clean homes, assisted pregnant women and children, distributed dry rations, and provided tools for basic repairs.

Caritas Sri Lanka, the Church’s social arm, moved quickly with immediate relief efforts — some 1.3 million Sri Lankan rupees (some US$4,200) in cash grants and three million dry ration packets.

Father Luke Nelson Perera, Caritas Sri Lanka’s national director, said subsequent phases will include supplying school uniforms, construction materials, cooking utensils, essential medicines, milk powder, and psychosocial support.

Across many dioceses, the scale of the relief efforts was immense, with more than 100,950 people housed in 70 Church-run temporary shelters.

People lived in these temporary shelters for three to seven days until the waters receded and they could return home earlier this month.

Catholic schools, convents, and institutions provided food, clothing, and medicine. Parish priests visited affected families; some organised mobile medical clinics for hundreds at a time.

Among the stories Nilantha related was that of a man who fought through chest-high water in search of help. His wife and children were later found balancing on a beam inside their flooded home — a family saved because someone kept rowing.

“I may not be very strong,” the priest said, “but God is with me. He works through thousands of hands to support the victims.”

On that fateful morning, Nilantha’s hands were among the first to help. But they were soon joined by thousands more — an entire nation answering the call of its most vulnerable as the waters rose.

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Presidential pardons: Govt. studying Justice Thurairaja’s recommendations – Minister

Published

1 hour ago

2026/10/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

Thurairaja / Harshana

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said yesterday that the Cabinet was studying a set of recommendations made by a Committee, led by retired Supreme Court judge Sithambarampillai Thurairaja, PC, regarding a systematic, fair and transparent mechanism for granting presidential pardons to convicted prison inmates.

Attorney-at-law Nanayakkara said so when The Island raised the issue in the wake of the ongoing controversy over prison authorities compelling General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Ven. Galadodaaththe Gnanasara to wear civilian attire when produced in court.

The Minister declined to elaborate but said the Cabinet of Ministers was yet to reach consensus on the recommendations. The NPP government, on 25 June 2025, appointed Thurairaja’s committee to study the provisions of the Article 34(1) of the Constitution, along with other statutory acts and judicial rulings.

Justice Thurairaja handed over his report to Justice and National Integration Ministry Secretary Ayesha Jinasena, PC.

The other members of the Committee were Deputy Minister of Mass Media Dr. Kaushalya Ariyarathne, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and National Integration Piyumanthi Peiris, Additional Solicitor General Nerin Pulle, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Legal Asanga Karawita, Chairperson of the Bureau of Rehabilitation Professor Wasantha Subasinghe, Specialist Dr. Chiththahari Abayanayake, former Acting Commissioner of Prisons Nishan Dhanasinghe, Acting Commissioner General of Prisons Prasad Hemantha Kumara, Senior Assistant Secretary (Legal) to the Ministry of Justice and National Integration Roshani Hettige, and Senior Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and National Integration Chandima Welikala.

The government called for guidelines regarding presidential pardon over a year before the Supreme Court rescinded, in September this year, the presidential pardon granted by Maithripala Sirisena to Ven Gnanasara serving a six-term of rigorous imprisonment for contempt of court. That pardon was granted in May 2019, the third controversial release by Sirisena during his presidency.

President Sirisena pardoned an ex-LTTE terrorist and also the Royal Park murderer Don Shramantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha, in 2016 and 2019, respectively. The Supreme Court, in June 2024, annulled the pardon granted to Jayamaha and ordered his arrest though he still remains free having fled overseas no sooner he was granted the pardon.

News

Mahinda and Shiranthi hospitalised

Published

1 hour ago

2026/10/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was admitted to a private hospital yesterday morning (12).

Meanwhile, former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa, who is currently in remand custody at Welikada Prison, has been admitted to the Cardiology Unit of the National Hospital in Colombo.

News

Monks must be allowed to wear robes when produced in court: Mahanayake Theras

Published

1 hour ago

2026/10/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

SJB MPs meeting Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Sumangala Mahanayake Thera of the Malwathu Chapter

“JVP did not bomb Dalada Maligawa; it seized weapons from security personnel stationed there”

By S. K. Samaranayake

Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Sumangala Mahanayake Thera of the Malwathu Chapter yesterday said the President has assured that a final decision on new prison regulations would be taken withn two weeks and until then whenever bhikkhus were produced before court, they must be allowed to wear robes. The monk said the Mahanayaka Thera has written to the Commissioner General of Prisons about their decision.

The Mahanayake Thera said so when SJB MPs, led by General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara, paid a courtesy call on him.

During the meeting, the Mahanayake Thera expressed the following views:

“Currently, a massive campaign is underway on social media to insult and disrespect the Maha Sangha. Some individuals carrying out these attacks are not linked to any political party. We expected the government to intervene and completely put an end to this, which is entirely possible. Laws should be introduced to control this. The insults directed at monks must be stopped immediately. We cannot accept these acts, no matter who commits them. We even saw fabricated images circulated on social media depicting the President in robes and monks in lay attire. Such disrespect is completely unacceptable and must be curbed.

“We also know that some individuals currently representing Parliament have past ties to the Sasana. All we ask is for the mudslinging and insults targeting monks to be halted immediately. Certain elements continue to spread falsehoods about the government. Before this administration came to power, they claimed temples were finished, Buddhism was over, and the Perahera wouldn’t take place. But didn’t they just conduct the Kandy Perahera brilliantly?

“Various people are even complaining about the Casket (Karanduwa) of the Dalada Maligawa. In particular, we saw former Diyawadana Nilame Niranjan Wijeratne criticising the matter. Much of what he said was false. During his tenure, the previous casket was coated in lacquer, which nobody talks about. Replacing the old brass casket with a golden casket is a very commendable step what is wrong with that? Just as items from royal eras are retired and modern equivalents are put to use, the older casket has been given due respect and securely housed. There is no issue there. Some people claim the JVP bombed the Maligawa too. Nothing of the sort happened; it was LTTE terrorists who bombed the temple. The JVP merely seized weapons from the security personnel stationed there.”

Meanwhile, speaking during the visit, SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara and other parliamentarians charged that the current administration is laying the groundwork to turn the country into a secular state.

“It is impossible to introduce new laws for monks within two weeks; it takes much longer,” Bandara noted. “The President has the authority to issue an interim directive that any monk presented to court must appear in robes, but he chooses not to do so because he does not want to. Everyone who speaks out against this is targeted and smeared on social media, driven by a network of 2,000 to 3,000 social media operators tied to the government who attack and insult me. Even during the case of Father Mathew Peiris, who committed murder, his clerical cassock was not stripped. Inside the prison religious leaders were respected.

“The public base of this current government is rapidly eroding as a result of their actions, which is why they are attempting to strike at Buddhism to secure minority votes. Any government is constitutionally bound to protect the Buddha Sasana. We will not allow them to destroy Buddhism and turn this country secular; we will defend Buddhism to the very last, and all Sri Lankans must step forward for this cause.”

Following their meeting at the Malwathu Chapter, the delegation proceeded to the Asgiri Mahavihara, where they met the Mahanayake Thera of the Asgiri Chapter, Most Venerable Warakagoda Sri Gnanaratana Mahanayake Thera, and Anunayake Venerable Narampanaye Sri Ananda Thera to brief them on the current situation.

The delegation included SJB Parliamentarians Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Kins Nelson, Sujeewa Senasinghe, A.C. Alahapperuma, Rohana Bandara, Suranga Ratnayake, Rohini Kaviratne, Chandrani Kirielle, alongside prominent figures such as Lakshman Kiriella, Wasantha Yapa Bandara, Ranjith Aluwihare, and Professor Upul Dissanayake.