Commentary. I'm shocked and saddened by this turn of events. I've always maintained a high regard for Buddhism, particularly the Theravada Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka. I've enjoyed on ocassion the insights of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana in two he books that he wrote, Mindfulness In Plain English and Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.Rome, Italy, Dec 11, 2009 / 12:59 pm (CNA).- More than 1,000 Buddhist extremists armed with clubs, swords and stones ferociously attacked a Catholic church in the town of Crooswatta, Sri Lanka on December 6, destroying the altar, statues and pews.
L’Osservatore Romano reported that Father Jude Denzil Lakshman, pastor of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, said “I still can hear their shouts in my ears, ‘Cut him to pieces, kill him’.”
The attack took place after the 7 p.m., Sunday Mass, leaving several parishioners wounded. “It is obvious that the attack was well-planned and that the mob waited for us to come out after Mass,” Father Lakshman said.
One parishioner told the Archdiocese of Colombo that as the congregation was leaving the evening Mass, they saw a mob coming towards them.
The parishioner added that the mob “set fire to Fr. Lakshman's car and then someone attempted to strike him with a sword,” but a young man heroically pulled him away.
The extremists “then damaged all other motor bikes, ordinary cycles of the poor people including a three-wheeler. Some persons armed with swords and batons went on beating the people. There are six Catholics in the hospital with cuts and injuries."
The archdiocese noted that Air Force personnel were deployed immediately to bring the mob under control. Guards are still in the area to guarantee the safety of the faithful, which include 293 families.
As of now, police have arrested 11 suspects from Buddhist extremist groups that have attacked the church in the past.
However, although I've said before that Buddhism provides, in my opinion, a highly-evolved system of ethics, in many aspects the best we can find outside of revealed religion, that is, of Judaism and Christianity and that, in the words of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, we are called to recognize how Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; on how it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination, these news from Sri Lanka give me pause.
Sure, I recognize that a religion, any religion, no matter how noble, can hope to shape every aspect of the civilizations they spawn for the best. Then yet again, I've never heard of a Catholic mob attacking a Buddhist holy place, whether in Sri Lanka or anywhere else.
I congratulate the Sri Lankan authorities for having arrested many of those responsible of this unjustified attack, and pray that Sri Lankan Catholics and Buddhists may coexist in peace, side-by-side and help and assist each other in the building of a civilization of peace and compassion.
- Check out photos of the damage on the website of the Archidiocese of Colombo in Sri Lanka.
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3 comments:
Certainly I lack authority when debating questions of religion and I rarely jump into them. But I remember "The Crusades" from a long ago history class. It seemed to be aggressive Catholic behaviors directed toward non-Catholics.
"The Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291. Other campaigns in Spain and Eastern Europe continued into the 15th century. The Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims, although campaigns were also waged against pagan Slavs, Jews, Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemies of the popes." emphasis added, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades.
Maybe I don't understand The Crusades or maybe The Crusades are irrelevant because they happened so long ago when there wasn't much enlightenment. Perhaps we're more enlightened today, perhaps not.
It seems to me there are extremists in just about every group, e.g. religion, politics, economics, and science and the attack on the Sri Lankan church was the work of Buddhist extremists. I do not condone the attack. Rather, I believe it to be the despicable act of unrepresentative Buddhists.
I am a non-believer but I will defend the right of ANY religion to practice their faith without interference.
buddhists have a nice reputation and are loved by hollywood but yes, they too pesecute Christians
PND:
Ah, the Crusades. More ink has been shed talking about them than the blood they actually shed.
Without justifiying any single depredation - the real ones, not the imagined ones - that took place in the Crusades - and they were numerous - I will say this: the Crusades, as originally conceived, were defensive actions against the encroachments of the Islamic jihad of which not many speak off today. If it hadn't been for the Crusaders and their belief in their cause, you and I would be discussing minute interpretations of the Koran. Science and progress as we know them today may have taken longer to play out, if at all; freedom as we've come to conceive it and enjoy it would not have been our birthright.
The definitive history of the Crusades awaits an objective writing. What we have is full of prejudice against the Catholic Church and aganist the notion of a Christian Europe and all that it entailed. The beginnings of the current Anti-Catholic, Anti-Crusader narrative can be found in the writings of 19th century Oxford dons who had no love lost for the Church and who gave us the term "Middle Ages". These were quite at home with the peaceful ways of the Pax Britannica and the ad hoc activities of dozens of British missionary societies who didn't need Crusader weapons to otherwise tell they inferior races that Christian culture, however dilluted, was far better than the diverse native heathenisms. Hilaire Belloc's The Crusades: The World's Debate stands as a courageous first effort to clarify the record of the Crusades.
As I said before: I recognize that a religion, any religion, no matter how noble, can hope to shape every aspect of the civilizations they spawn for the best. I also reaffirm: I've never heard of a Catholic mob attacking a Buddhist holy place, whether in Sri Lanka or anywhere else.
Peace be with you,
-Theo
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