Home

Background on Folk Schools

Articles Index

In the late evening of November 10, Fr. Michael Rodrigo was felled by the bullet of a killer towards the end of the Mass he had just celebrated with his little community at Buttala. This murder while celebrating the Eucharist was to many of his friends reminiscent of the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and in any case behind both killings were unmistakably the forces of right-wing reaction

Mike Rodrigo born on 30 June 1927, was first a professor at the National Seminary of the Roman Catholic Church at Ampitiya from 1955 to 1971. He later served at the Centre for Society and Religion and became in 1972 the director of Sevaka Sevana in Bandarawela, which was the Baduila Diocesan Seminary set up by Bishop Leo Nanayakkara of blessed memory and closed by Church authorities soon after the Bishop's death. Since July 1980, Fr Mike was released by the same Bishop to live at Buttala in a community comprising himself, two sisters and a young Buddhist "Suba Seth Gedera" (Good Wishes House) was the name of the cottage in which Mike sought to commence a Buddhist-Christian dialogue and a village conscientization effort in the area.

The choice of Buttala for this venture was significant. Buttala was in the area of Vellassa (meaning in Sinhala a hundred thousand rice fields) which in the days of the Sinhala kings was a veritable rice bowl of the island. The people of Vellassa have bad a tradition of rebellion and sturdy independence and the great rebellion of 1817 against the British also based in the Vellassa region was suppressed with annihilating thoroughness by the Colonial government. Writing of these happenings, Fr. Michael has remarked : "There took place in the year 1818 unwonted reprisals against the peasantry, their tanks or reservoirs, their homes and all their possessions were destroyed. An imperialist power governing the island through a Christian governor brought to nought the work of generations. of Buddhist peasants in one fell stroke. This event, seared into their memory and willy-nilly upheld in mind and imagination even a hundred and sixty-five years later produces in them a traumatic shock.".. It was in such a setting that Mike Rodrigo decided to bear true Christian witness in sharp contrast to the institutional forms of Church life identified in the popular mind with proseletyising, foreign culture and vested interests.

Michael succeeded in establishing close rapport with the villagers and the youth in particular and gave them a new understanding of what it meant to be a Christian and to be truly th3 church in the village setting of Alukalavita in Buttala. His understanding of Buddhism and identification with village life, its culture and its poverty, his grasp of the problems confronting the peasants, his espousal of justice and intervention whether on behalf of the poor villagers or the workers of the multinational close by at Pelwatte, more than established his bona fides and endeared him to the people. Not unnaturally he was for that very reason seen as a threat to the vested interests of the area and to the status quo. Unfortunately, tile absence of a movement to effectively back him in his witness both at the local and national level made Michael vulnerable to the unscrupulous reactionary forces at work. Indeed the very continuance of his mission in the area now poses the need for a proper resolution of this question.

The quality of Mike's witness and its impact on the people he served cannot however be disputed. When the Buddhist villagers found his dead body lying on the ground, they reverently gathered up the pieces of his brain and the eyes which had fallen out and buried them in the garden, putting up two crosses to mark the spots. In doing so they said " these were the eyes which saw our condition and this is the brain that guided us. These were the most precious parts of his body and since we have them, Fr. Michael still remains with us." How different was the response of certain church authorities. Some of them are even said to have been embarrassed at the sight of a priest, who had celebrated his last Mass dressed in a sarong, forgetful perhaps that their own Master had offered his great Sacrifice of Calvary stark naked on a rebel's Cross!

Although not a Member of the Christian Workers Fellowship, Michael was very appreciative of the work of C.W.F. and of its Workers' Mass. After the CWF Mass for Bishop Leo Nanayakkara (presided over by Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe) which he attended, Mike remarked that although Liturgy was his speciality, he was so caught up in this Mass from the very start that lie was not aware of himself. He said that he could not pay a bigger compliment to any Liturgy. So it was with this same Workers' Liturgy that the CWF decided at short notice to honour Mike on the day of his funeral, at the lunch hour in the YMCA Chapel in Colombo Fort. It was a Mass for a Martyr with clergy of different Churches clad in red vestments decorated also with the hammer and sickle symbols of the worker and peasant. A young priest spoke movingly at this Mass of his experience in living at Buttala with Fr. Michael during the last few weeks of his life. He related an interpretation of the sign of the Cross that he had learnt from Fr. Mike The forehead (symbolising intellect) has to be linked to the breast (feeling) and lead on to action represented by the arms. And so our Martyr's Mass for Mike which was sung in Sinhala, began with reading and reflection and after being movingly climaxed in the communion ended appropriately with a call to action in the full-throated rendering of our traditional working class movement hymn which is also the local equivalent of the Internationale.

2 To Michael

became one. (1)

Out of the depths you cried, (2)

(1) It was generally known that Michael Rodrigo celebrated the Eucharist every evening around 7-30 p.m. The assassin struck as the service was drawing to a close.

(2) After the agonised decision to stay on in spite of threats to their lives. the little community at Buttala recited Psalm 130 together.

(3) Isaiah 52 :14-53 :1-17. The gun shot shattered Michael Rodngo's face.

(4) Michael rejoiced that the language of the people was restored to the liturgy by Vatican II. At the funeral service in Colombo the language used was English - still the language of privilege. Apart from two in Sinhala and one in Tamil, even the hymns were in English. The eulogies were also in English.

(5) The theology of money has yet to be unmasked. When money as a means of exchange came into general usage in Europe, the Roman Rubric prescribed that the eucharistic bread should take the form of a coin- "forma denarii." (Cf. Jungman S. J. - The History of the Roman Liturgy - The Chapter on the Offertory). There is a close parallel between the theory of transubstantiation developed around this time and the theory of Money.

The consecrated Host and tile coin, not only appear similar, but retain the attributes of common bread and metal. Under chemical analysis they would react exactly as ordinary bread and metal. Yet they have taken on an extraordinary value, miraculously in the one case and mysteriously in the other. Bread is the very substance of life, and like metal is nature transformed by the social labour of human beings. In the consecrated bread the substance of everyday life, it is taught; is "trans-substantiated" into the substance of spiritual life. Bread as the source of human life, is a symbol of God who is the very Source of all Life. But this is mystified. The same for money. It becomes the socially accepted value against which all goods and services can be exchanged. Its real value is a derived

value, but flow mystified to conceal its inner essence which is congealed living, human labour. In the form of money, human labour and its products can now be appropriated and accumulated. Bread, the very source of life has a price tag. Thus, No Money - No Bread - No Life - Death. Money in the form of Capital is the ultimate blasphemy, because it takes on all the functions attributed to the Divine Mediator. In the practical life of the world, it becomes " enabling grace," the miracle worker. Without it the hungry cannot be fed, the sick healed, the naked clothed. Each need must first be converted into money-value, before the services of even the noblest of professions, of priest, physician or teacher could be had. God and Ceasar have become one. The U.S. Dollar carries the words "In God we Trust." The Dutch Guilder, "God is with us." When Jesus referred to himself as the Heavenly Bread, he meant the new state of affairs he. had initiated, in which God's will being done on earth as it is in Heaven, the daily bread would be given to all.

John in his Book of Revelations, speaks of money as the Idol of Death, bearing the sign of the Beast and " his number, 616," which adds up to Caesar-God.' Everyone rich and poor, citizen and slave are under the sway of this Beast and it becomes " illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the Beast or with the number of its name."-(Revelation 13 : 16-17, and footnote New Jerusalem Bible). For the new state of affairs as Michael Rodrigo understood it see The Acts (Praxis) of the Apostles 2: 42 - 47.

(6) Eulogy spoken in Sinhala by a Buddhist monk at a service in honour of Michael Rodrigo in Bandarawele.

This poem was prompted by the remark of a villager outside Fatima Church: "Me okkoma Ingirisiyeng karapu eke, Apey Michael suwamita apliasayak."- (Doing all this in English is a slur to our Fr. Michael)

Reproduced from CHRISTIAN WORKER (Quarterly of the Christian Workers Fellowship) 1987 4th Quarter.

"The Cross is not something we hang on the walls or round our necks. Jesus hung on it first. It was the Roman Empire's Chief instrument of political torture. So, we must be ready to die for our people if and when the time comes. He died at 33 because he stuck out his necks for people, for the poor the down and out and distressed..

Seek Akke, the God of consolations rather than the consolations of God and you will prepare for a superb heaven. Life is fleeting. I died long ago, the day I made vows in 1948. It is 49 years now."

(These are words from a letter dated 28th September 1987 Fr. Michael Rodrigo wrote to his own sister who was worried about his safety.)

3 Background to the Murder

(As related to Christian Worker by a member of Suba Seth Gedera)

On November 4th, 1987 the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (J. V. P.) were said to have shot at and injured a mudalali (businessman) named Mr. Madduma outside his home at Alukalavita.

That night about 11.30 p.m. about 12 armed men in uniform surrounded Fr. Michael Rodrigo's cottage (Suba Seth Gedera) and called out to him saying they were the police. On Fr. Michael's opening the door, the armed men stated they had information that Fr. Michael was hiding Mr. Madduma's assailant. They then searched the cottage and looked through Fr. Michael's papers with a torch and left after an hour.

The next morning (5th November) the armed men turned up again and said they were the ones who had come the previous flight. They told Fr. Michael that they had received several petitions against him. Fr. Michael inquiring as to who these persons were remarked that he was sure the petitions were from six persons whose names he mentioned. The armed men admitted it was so. Fr: Michael then asked them to consult the other people in the village. Sr. Mitburga asked what the allegations made against Fr. Michael and his helpers were. The men said that there were classes held here and that the petitioners had said these were JVP classes. Fr. Michael and the Sisters explained to the men that they conducted a literacy programme and a farmers' education programme.

The armed men retorted: "You are helping the JVP to hide". Fr. Michael gave them the names of people sent out for training by him showing them the files. The men then said "Those in hiding have connections with you. They have survived because of you. What is your connection with the: people here ?" Fr. Michael replied : "As a follower of Jesus Christ I have made an option for the poor. All my connections are with the poor because they are poor. I am not interested in party politics". When asked for the names of JVP members Fr. Michael said that since that party was proscribed he could not know who were members and who were not. They retorted : "You will never help' us. You are useless. Give us one name". Fr. Michael said that he was unable to do so.

The armed men then asked Fr. Michael not to permit all youth to come to Suba Seth Gedera but only selected ones, saying that it reflected badly on him if the JVP people also came. Fr. Michael refused to exclude anyone saying that lie could not distinguish between JVP and others.

On November 6th men in uniform, came and picked out one put him into their jeep and warned him, so some of the who used to come in the evenings to Suba Seth Gedera frightened thereafter to do so.

Fr. Michael knew the sufferings that people were undergoing He was in the context of the tense conditions in the area literally weeping for the poor. "These people have to suffer because they are poor" he said. He was even heard to ask the Lord with arms stretched out before the Blessed Sacrament why he was not taken. instead of the poor.

On November 10th the same men came at noon and spoke nicely to Fr. Michael for some time. Fr. Michael asked what their religious beliefs were and spoke to them about the dangers of militarisation and the need for human values. The leader of the group told Fr. Michael on leaving that he would see him again when he left for Kataragama. It was by all accounts a very friendly visit that day. It was that very evening that Fr. Michael was brutally gunned down.

4 The Evening of the Murder

An eyewitness account

On account of the tense situation that prevailed, our Community had to decide whether to stay on in Suba Seth Gedera where we lived or to withdraw from the Alukalavita area at least for a time.

Fr. Michael said : "We are a part of the people and they must be consulted. I have consulted them and they are unanimous that we should stay. Otherwise they would have no one to turn to in their difficulties. For me the Voice of the People is the Voice of God. They have decided we should not leave them and that is the Voice of God for me. In any case I will not foist my opinion on anyone. If the Community decides otherwise, I will abide by it. After all my bones are light enough to be carried away".

That evening of November 10th at about 5 o'clock Fr. Michael himself prepared the altar for the Mass. It was a small table about 6 inches above the ground level. Fr. Michael informed us that Mass was to be at five o'clock that evening when usually it was at seven after visitors had left. On inquiring why the Mass was to be early, Fr. Michael remarked:" We will have plenty of time for the Lord and we have to make a decision today".

That evening Fr. Michael sat behind the altar placed immediately below the window of the meditation room. He was dressed in his normal shirt and sarong. He had placed the shawl he normally used for the celebration round his shoulders. Seated behind the altar-table, he was already singing the opening hymn when we entered the room.

We found slips of paper left at three corners of the room where each of us were to sit during the Mass. Each slip was divided into two columns with the headings " Reasons for staying " and " Reasons for leaving " written in Fr. Michael's own handwriting. After about 20 minutes being given to enable us to write on these slips of paper, we shared with each other the 'pros' and 'cons' of staying or leaving. With one exception, the other two agreed with Fr. Michael that we should stay on at Alukalavita.

Although Fr. Michael usually encouraged a lot of spontaneity and creativity from others at our daily Mass, that evening he himself had decided on our reciting Psalm 130 ("Out of the depths have I called unto you O Lord …"). The Mass proceeded and after our communion together, Fr. Michael said: "After all, the lasting things are Love and relationship with the people. These things will last even in eternity. Don't be afraid, we will commit ourselves to God". He added " Into your hands O Lord I commit my spirit". It was about 7-30 p.m. A shot rang out. My ears were blocked and I fell from my sitting position. I suddenly realised that I lay in a very uncomfortable position. I wanted to change my position but was afraid to stir fearing something further. We were all numb and remained in that condition for perhaps over half an hour until Sr. Benedict said in Sinhala "Father ivarai" (Father is finished). I did not still understand until I saw Fr. Michael's brain lying on the floor near me, intact. Although my senses up to that time had been numb, the thought now suddenly struck me "only a small mind opposed to his mind could do this". I then glanced at the body leaning against the wall. The skull broken to bits was lying on the floor, blood and pieces of flesh spattered the walls. All three of us too were soaked in blood. Sr. Benedict said : " Come and see there is his blood in the chalice "-(the stainless steel bowl we used for communion).

We were frightened and closed the two doors of the house and huddled together. We then knelt down and holding hands promised that we would remain faithful to the vision Fr. Michael shared with us. We were again quiet for a time. After a while I felt my arm and leg heavy. Two little wounds were found on my arm. I then found I could hardly move my leg. We shouted out to a neighbour for assistance. This neighbour sent word to the Army who came after some time. They were prepared to take me to hospital but were reluctant to have a guard at the place that night as they said they feared an attack on the Army Camp. On my refusing to leave for hospital unless a guard was posted, they agreed to do so and took me to the Buttala hospital from where I was removed to the Badulla Hospital in the morning. I had six wounds and some pellets were removed from my body. Two pellets still remain inside.

Sr. Milburga Fernando

Inquiries made into the incident by Christian Worker revealed that on the evening of Fr. Michael's murder two boys from the village who used to visit Suba Seth Gedera had been chased away by persons in uniform that evening before the shooting. According to these boys the two men in uniform who chased them away were in a vehicle parked about 200 yards away from Suba Seth Gedera. A villager had reported that a vehicle slowed down near Suba Seth Gedera that evening as if to drop someone and had then gone some distance beyond and stopped. The vehicle had later returned, slowed down and left. A girl cooking nearby had said she had heard the sound of someone wearing boots running away that evening around the time of the incident.

5 Fr. Michael Rodrigo's Mission

-In his own words

I came out to the village in July 1980, reconciliati6n and recompense for the damage did to our peasantry in 1818".

"When we came here in 1980, it was to a countryside which had suffered the ravages of 1818 Uva insurrection (or rebellion). The peasants have it in their unconscious memory and the sight of a "Christian-out-for-a-quick conversion to his dangerous-fold" (as monks used to say then) was an eye-sore. Healing, reconciling, acceptance of our fault in parading western christendom (as totally devoid of a sense of the Kingdom). All this is necessary if we are to understand each other on the path of the Dialogue, of Life." (1986).

"I have learnt at the feet of the people, the poor masses, and at the feet of the Gurus of the village whom I always revere - the Buddhist monks who slowly but surely try in many places in Sri Lanka to lead the people to the living out of the Dhamma in practice. Everyday I learn from the people, farmers and peasants specially, patience, renunciation, acceptance of their lot, suffering, hope in solidarity and what are generally called the Saradharma, virtues of sharing, brotherhood, rejection of greed (tanha, or animalness, avarice)."

With us, without us, the masses will arise. Sovereign power is vested in them. After two millennia of Buddhism, and several centuries of Christianity, Asia is still a continent of contrasts; enormous wealth and luxury stare unashamedly at rows of poverty, deprivation, wretchedness. Costly medical care for the few side by side with the many ill, weak, physical break-downs from generations of hard work and low wages, exhaustion and malnutrition. Forty and more years of analysis in Asia has led scholars to believe in a rural crisis " in Asia, with its poverty, poor nutrition, low income levels, widespread unemployment. Its source is the tension by continuously growing demands on agricultural production which must largely be met from limited land and water resources. Those raking in the surplus and the unseemly profits live in palaces, large dwellings vaunting vulgar affluence, drive in limousines while the vast masses have just stepped out from a stalled bus-unroadworthy bus on unbusworthy roads-in rank rural areas of Asia. While the few enjoy higher education and read the high literacy rate charts in the capital city. literally millions drop out from school at an early age. The few dominate, dictate, control, cajole, the others are suppressed, cowed into submission, victims of threats, thugs, force, despair.

"Such structuring of society is highly unjust, unreasonable. Have religions failed humans or have humans failed their religions? Economic exploitation and political oppression, militarization and imperialist tendencies are major causes of Asian misery. Cultural domination and alienation are another root cause born of selfishness. Thierry Verhelst of APHO appeals "to Asia to help the West by its deepest wisdoms-Yoga and Vedantic philosophy, Yingyang of Tao, Zen meditation, the Buddhist sense of dharma as supplement d'ame, additional soul. Thus must be developed a sense of the sacred towards body, nature, matter" Significant alternatives to present destructive forces are not too far away. Spiritual renewal can lead to a fresh approach to sociopolitical commitment and then concern for justice and solidarity will be an essential part of Christianity, a genuine dialogical experience.

"Through our Village Effort at Dialogue, multiplied manifold, reflected' and acted upon, may there be a saner approach to Dialogue, to the Poor, to the Liberation thrust so that we may move slowly but surely to the Future of removing as best as we can, the milestones to Armageddon."- (August 1987).

15 Mike speaks on his Buddhist-Christian Village Dialogue of Life

Buddhism and Christianity must grow together. This demands a radical self-emptying. The Kenosis of the Jesus Community of today, drawn from Jesus'; self-emptying (Philippians 2:7) must be matched with the selflessness, anatta of the Buddhist sasana of today as closely as possible, for unless there is this basic human trait operative in religion and society, there is no truly human.

Christians in dialogical experience in a totally non-Christian milieu, proclaim Jesus by witness, for He never worked for himself but for the ongoing reign of God. "The Bible, especially the New Testament presents Christ's work as one of liberation. God himself in the fullness of time sent his incarnate Son into the world to free men from every form of slavery to which they were subject by reason of sin and of human egotism, from ignorance, destitution, hunger, oppression, hatred, injustice (Gal 4:4-5). Jesus' first preaching was to proclaim the liberation of the oppressed. Sin, the root of all injustice and oppression is in fact an egoistic turning back upon ourselves, a refusal to love others and therefore to love God himself. In continuing the prophetic mission of her founder, the Church must more forcefully preach and realize more effectively this liberation of the poor, the outcast, the worker working with others, building with others a world where every man, no matter what his race, religion or nationality can live a fully human life, freed from servitude imposed by other men or by natural forces over which he has no control".

It is this Jesus, the Risen Christ in community who asked that we preach to all nations, and nations are structures of society--that today spew broken-down persons, oppressed, alienated, caricatures of what the Father meant his children to be, and this especially in the Third World.

The basic matrix of all religions is precisely this area of self-sacrifice and selflessness which is the only true human. The falsely human is the tendency to egoism and self-aggrandisement. It is not in the search for wholeness of life that the truth is found, but in the search for newness of life, a new man a new woman for a new age. In truth, this is the goal of moral activity : one must lose oneself to be born again. Newness or conversion means a radical new person. It is the bridge by which the 'this person or this people' of condemnation come over to the 'my people' of praise (3).

Accordingly the Buddha's radical selflessness (partiyaga) made him full of great wisdom (mahaprajna) and great compassion (mahakaruna) for others. It was on this he befriended the lost boy, Sopaka, won over Yasa the rich young man, comforted Patacara, accepted Sunita the scavenger, was kind to the sick monk and disposed Angulimala the bandit of 99 stolen fingers to a better life. It is in this last instance that we find arouaua jati katp, rebirth as renewal of moral life, a newness born of unselfishness (4).

The Buddha's radical approach to reality borne on self-sacrifice, intended breaking the power of the brahmin caste. Away from the lure of land, possessions, potentate, he preferred an exodus from home and luxury, symbolic of a deep self-emptying-. Thus divesting himself of bonds of wife and child, servant, home, - horse, most personal belonging as crown of the head (tuft of hair), he opted for a life of wise detachment in the search of truth. That was his real power, real humanness, real newness of life: the ability to do without. Departure into the ranks of the voiceless poor by equalization,. was also a rejection of the power of the sword wielded by the kshatriya clan.

2. - The Bowels of Compassion of Jesus: the Melting Heart of the Buddha

As light is to the lamp, so the instasis of selflessness animates the going forth, the ecstasy (exstasis) of love. Love is always outgoing, compassionate, healing, melting, suffering with the sufferer, a sym-pathia a com-passion.

Jesus made a preferential option for .the poor, to them. Korean minjung theology upholds that the ochlos, the masses, followed Jesus because they felt like sheep without a shepherd Jesus loved them with compassion welling from the heart, even below the heart, the splachnon, bowels of mercy, entrails, those inward parts from which strong emotions arise, a 'gut reaction' proceeds.

On the other hand, metta (maitri, maitreya) comes from mejjati, a melting heart, word so closely knit with the bowels of compassion. It is the very 'soul,' animating point of the brahmaviharas, four sublime states of metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (gladness at another's well-being), and equanimity upekkha.

The ecstasy of love making others live and let live is clear in the ten perfections, the dasaparamita - dana (almsgiving), sila (virtuous conduct), nekkhama (renunciation), kshanti (patience), viriya (energy), dhyana (meditation), prajna (comprehension), adhistana (resolve), bala (power). These go with ananda (joy), shanthi (peace), karuna (compassion) and dana (almsgiving). Thus, the last of the virtues is first of the paramitas, dana. It is a way of saying: "no gift, no giving without self-giving," for jnandana (share knowledge), saukyadana (share health), are all based on dana (self-gift) which sums up the Buddha's life.

3.-Christianity Living for Buddhism at Village Level

Extolling the life of the Other, even at risk of one's own is the way of love. Since Romans 2 :10 coaxes us to give honour to whom honour is due', and that ' peace, renown and honour come to all who do good,' our Village effort at dialogue began in 1981 to celebrate with the Buddhists, the triple light festival of Vesak, recalling the Birth, Enlightenment and the mahaparinibbana of the Buddha. The Christian speaker of the day, before a crowd of over a thousand people spoke on new views of pansil, the five precepts: -

If some nations kill, what some call the lower strata of society, if we violate human rights for food, clothing, shelter, justice, then we violate the first precept : panatipata vera mani sikkha…

If we keep up GNP at the expense of other countries; if we pay poor prices for raw materials and low wages in some Third World countries, robbing workers of means of sustenance, then we extol things, objects with avarice, greed (tanha) and reject relationships with metta, and that is not righteous... Adinnadana vera mani sikkha…

"If kama is taken as exclusive erotic love, isolated from integral love, then sex promiscuity, pornography will make us treat persons as objects and not as subjects. Siam (Thailand) responsible for the start of our Siam nikaya of monks, has 300,000 prostitutes, kamesu miccacara…

"If one nation with 6% of the world's population, waste over 40% of the world S resources, it is doing falsehood in hatred, the living out of a lie ... Musavada vera mani sikkha…

"The fifth precept is against the weakening of the will through drink. Today it must take drug within its scope… Surameraya majja pama…

The Venerable Kotaneluwe Upatissa of the ancient Happoruwa temple, present for the festival at Suba Seth Gedera on this occasion replied : "Let us say that this catholic priest expounded dhamma well. The Buddha says that one must venerate the one who knows the dhamma… Update Buddhist doctrine, reflect on it, live it in a widest scope."

Within a fortnight of our arrival in July 1980, the Poya malu vihara monk asked: "when would you be leaving this place, for we are sure you would soon pour water and baptise." To which a small-time trader, a follower added : "Why don't you see to your own religion and we will see to ours?" But after persistent visits, interchange, planning together and persevering collaboration on issues, the tide turned by Vesak 1982. When we had rewritten with a lyricist farmer's help, Buddhist devotional songs based on the saradharma and the dasaparamitas (ten perfections), and seven hundred devotees had listened to them with awe and respect, the monk, Venerable Alutwela Sumanasiri announced over the address system : "This group of 10 Buddhist singers and one catholic priest and two sisters are Buddhist-Christians, Buddhists by their culture and the other Group is Christian by belief and conduct. They have a large heart to honour the Buddha as a great Asian teacher. I regret having harassed him at the start saying he had come to baptise. Now, I know that was not his-idea. So, now I tell you, be free to come here or to go there to learn the dhamma. It is the same. He too can guide you".

On May 21 1987, he officially affirmed his collaboration in the Village Effort of the Buddhist-Christian Dialogue by giving his signature to the Constitution and agreement. We had come a long way to work for a fuller humanity.

Again, when 89 farmers had lost their harvest due to a heavy drought, we prepared a 34-page report and went for redress and relief the Christian group and the Buddhist monks and farmers, eight in all to the local state secretariat (the kachcheri). A puny official accosted us : "One religion is frightening enough. I get more frightened when two religions come together." To which the Ven. Alutwela Piyananda retorted: "Surely you are not quite against the dharmista samajaya (the righteous society) set up by the leader of the country?." By evening, the local MP had asked him not to join the Christians for such work in future. The monk came to us and said: "For whom did Jesus live and die? For man. For whom did the Buddha work? For man, for men and women. Now let us get together and work for human rights." We felt were together in our distress.

Such events after our initial Survey to assess needs, organization of a Health community; of recycling drop-outs back to school; visit to the Buddhist shrines and holy places for four days at their request; training of 14 barefoot or rural nurses for 14 villages for over a year; collaboration on culture of the Buddhists through monthly slide programmes; organization of Kantha samiti (women's group) and Mothers (Union) Group, with consensus; presentation of the Uluka Jataka on consensus being better than majority decision (drama held at the temple); preparing 30,000 kg., of certified local fertilizer with twelve farmers; Vesak day exhibitions to show the great wise healer (Mahausadha pandita, the Buddha) and the divine physician (Jesus) as both interested in the People's health and the 600 volume library of Buddhist, literature, history, drama etc., books - all this endeared us to them and them to us.

-From a Paper read at a Conference entitled" Buddhism and Christianity - Towards it the Human Future."

7 A Controversial Priest

It is a habit in the church circles in Sri Lanka, not to discuss things openly. Though many people know that the Rev. Fr. C. A. Joachim Pillai and the Rev. Fr. Michael Paul Rodrigo were stopped from teaching at the Major Seminary after many (in the case of Fr. Michael, sixteen) years of service and that Bishop Leo Nanayakkara reacted against this move strongly, there is hardly any written material helpful in finding the nature of the disputes and the issues involved; what one does know is that the conflicts at the time were strong enough to split the Kandy Diocese into two and lead to the creation of a new seminary, completely different to the old one. In that crisis Fr. Michael Rodrigo was a key figure.

In the Roman Catholic Church he was regarded as the leader of liturgical renewal of the sixties. But when. he returned from the Institute Catholique de Paris in 1973, where he had completed his second doctorate, he had no place in the inn (Roman Catholic Institution). In fact he had known this and had agreed to return to Paris, to accept an academic post. He was to return there after six months. Even within those six months, someone was pursuing him. Nuns in a convent were persuaded not to give him shelter, and after about two months of teaching at the Sister Formation Course at Aquinas, his services were discontinued. It is said that someone in authority there did not approve of his dress and ideas.

What did it matter? He was only holidaying. But a person who mattered much to him, once again stood between him and his plans for the future. That was Bishop Leo. The Bishop reminded him of his duty to his country and refused to accept any excuse. The spiritual confrontation between the two continued for a few months. As it was his habit, Fr. Michael Rodrigo consulted his friends ; most of them advised him to go back to Paris. But he consulted his Lord too and after a long night of prayer he decided to stay back and accepted the Bishop's invitation to work in Sri Lanka. Later he became the Director of Sevaka Sevana, the Seminary at the Badulla Diocese.

This Seminary was to become a unique Third World experience and a step forward in the direction of a rupture from the Western Model training factory for priests. At the start, "the Sevakas" spent every weekend with people in some part of Uva. Soon the period of time spent with people grew longer, extending even for weeks. The idea then was to visit every little -part of Uva, not with the ambition of converting others but in order to unlearn and to conscientize themselves.

Bishop Leo who had reminded him of his obligation to the people was in turn posed with a challenge when Fr. Michael Rodrigo suggested that the Seminary must be taken to a more remote rural setting. Bishop Leo who was already immensely harassed by representatives from Rome and their local counterparts, reminded Fr. Michael Rodrigo of possible counter arguments which will be posed against such a move. (By this time Bishop Leo had so developed a sense of humour regarding the behaviour of Vatican Representatives that he could forsee their often nonsensical arguments and moves and prepared himself beforehand to meet them)*. Bishop Leo in this instance wanted to move slowly to avoid being ambushed by his opponents. Fr. Michael Rodrigo decided to follow the call of the people, and with two girls, two boys and two nuns began a community known as "Subaseth Gedera" at Buttala.

This was a unique experience and the happiest part of his life as he had found a place where he was closest to his Creator-away from institutional illusions - totally linked to people, which meant the poor. Here he developed an important aspect of theology in terms of Sri Lanka's history. "We came here to undo the historical damage done in the last century by some who called themselves Christians". The "Community" were like the rural people, women wearing 'Redda-Hatta' (cloth and jacket and he, a sarong and banian. That even a simple matter such as this drew so much opposition from some members of the Catholic hierarchy showed how alien their "religion" was to the people.

*Eoitor's note: The Vatican Representative in question was Mgr. Niccolao Rotunno. His predecessor, Mgr. Carlo Curis was prepared to go a long way with Bishop Leo's implementation of the Conciliar vision of the local church.

For the first year at Buttala, it was decided not to start any work but to move with the people all the time, to participate in every activity of the people, to keep the house open for the people, to face their questions (which were many) and to be totally integrated with their social millieu with a liberative vision. Later various activities were developed at the request of people, who began to accept the "community " and who began slowly to manifest their resistance capabilities. The tremendous amount of work done at the time is reflected to some extent in the writings and other creative contributions such as slides_, posters and the like.

It is very obvious from Fr. Michael's writings, that he gradually began to be aware of the exploitation process which kept people in poverty. He clearly shows its connection with the policies of the day. And so the stage was set for a confrontation some day. It happened on the 10th of November; 1987.

The following are some of the major contributions of Fr. Mike to the progressive thought in this country. (He could not influence very many ' within ' the church, with his thinking in these areas in his lifetime)

1. The incorporation of the philosophy and the methodology of "Conscientization" into tile process of dialogue. In the view of this writer, this is the key to understanding what he did at Buttala, during the last eight years of his life. In the seventies Patrick Fernando ridiculed what was then taking place as dialogue as some sort of a 'cricket match' and urged for a more serious approach. Fr. Mike himself strongly criticized what he saw as dialogue " in many places. But his final criticism was a very practical one, one may say a practice he developed together with his community and the people. No one can deny the seriousness of that practice.

2. The recognition of the historical process of exploitation with the victim-this theme is found in all his utterances, in the last period of his life. This is one of the fundamental aspects where Western thought has to be distinguished from the living and dynamic thought of the East. His thought in that regard (there are others who have been going the same direction) is a clear break from the traditional church thinking represented by people like the Rev. Fr. Peter Pillai. Leaving colonial arrogance is an essential element of becoming a part of the real people of this country.

3. By the problems he faced in engaging in the Dialogue and by his death, he contributed to the understanding of the real Sri Lanka. In this he was a true practitioner of the conscientization methodology. What he forced all thinking people to look at was a very sinister and an explosive political situation that exists in the country. It is said that in the last months of his life he was very often at the point of tears and even walked out of the table without eating, having begun to perceive the depth of poverty the poor were exposed to. That was the depth out of which he cried to his Lord. And as such a cry was unbearable to the ears of some, his voice was brutally stilled. But his silence has now become very eloquent.

Basil Fernando

Basil Fernando is an attorney-at-law specially engaged in the defence of human rights and was organiser of the Legal Aid and Education programme of the Christian Workers Fellowship. Formerly an Instructor in English Language at the Sri Jayawardenepura University, he has published four anthologies of poems in English and Sinhala.

(Courtesy : Dialogue 1988)

8 The Poor and Fr. Mike

His ambition

was not to be

a Leader

of the Poor.

No, he merely stood

beside them

till they discovered

their own

potential.

He was not the voice

of the voiceless.

No, he merely stood

beside them

till they found

their own voice

their own speech.

Atoning

for the Western Christian

damage

done to People's -history

he stood beside them

till their wounded selves

were cured:

till they learned

to resist and rebel

and to be free again.

They killed him

not out of dislike

for him,

but out of fear

of the re-birth

of the will and the determination

of the Poor

who wanted to be whole again.

-Basil Fernando

Read after the CWF Thanksgiving Mass for Fr. Michael held at the Colombo YMCA Gym Hall on 10th May, 1988 to commemorate him six months after his martyrdom.

Fr. Michael and the C.W.F.

Fr. Michael Rodrigo maintained contact with the Christian Workers Fellowship and was interested in its activities. That he was conscious of the need for building up a CWF oriented group equipped with clear perspectives in carrying out work in the area is seen in the following letter sent to Viyaya Vidyasagara of the CWF in 1984. Unfortunately these plans never materialised due to local problems and the increasing political tensions in the latter period made work much more difficult for Fr. Michael. His venture therefore remained an isolated one.

"Suba Seth Gedera"

Alukalavita

Buttala

21 September 1984

My dear Vijaya,

Thank you for your prompt letter of 19.9.

We met the Committee and the Group. The rains have come. The chenas are worked upon. No one is free until February next year. So, hold your horses! We will all come (3 of us) some time in late Feb or March next year. Please await our confirmation of March or Feb. dates or our request for them.

I know you will not hold it against us for this "raise-up" of hopes and "let down" of them .. .. but we have to fit even non-format education to the pattern of agriculture.

Hence, cancel the 19th night and 20-23 October arrangements. I was quite intrigued that MUSEUM and ZOO were part of the CWF orientation and study I Museum for Church History pieces like Bishop's Caps etc., and Zoo for remnants of the Asses' jawbone (biblical etc!)

Jokes apart, I hope you'll understand. Next year will be just fine. The farmers were pulled apart since they like to come later, but are busy with Maha preparation now.

Happy to learn of Anna's and Geoffrey's release. "Prayers were offered unceasingly for them" by the little community at Buttala, so that the truth will triumph.

The 18/- will come to Bristol Street.

God bless you,

Yours fraternally

(Sgd.) Mike Rodrigo