New Auxiliary Msgr. Pillainayagam adds a fresh chapter to history of Colombo Archdiocese

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

The members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka along with a limited number of priests and religious 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 is the birthplace of the Auxiliary Bishop Elect Anton Ranjith hailing from Our Lady of Refuge (known well as OLR Parish) Parish, Jaffna, whose consecration ceremony the Sri Lankan Catholics await, has been the fertile land claimed to have given seven bishops so far and Msgr. Pillainayagam is the eighth in the bishop rank given as a dowry to the Sri Lanka Catholic Church.

He is a close relative of Trincomalee Bishop Emeritus His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph Kingsley Swamipillai.

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

Pillainayagam family, temporary residents at 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, the mother of the two small kids went back to Jaffna and the two children found entrance to St. Patrick College, Jaffna (1974-1985) and completed their primary and secondary education.

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. He having completed his studies in Philosophy sought permission from the Local Bishop to enter for 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 already was residing in Colombo by this time. Having found shelter in Wellawatte, Anton was looking for employment and at the same time he began giving tuitions. The idea of entering the vineyard of the Lord, as 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 the year 1975,via the help of his relative Bishop Emeritus Swampillai and ever willing the then Colombo Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Nicholas Marcus Fernando. He began learning Sinhala and he joined the Major Seminary, Our Lady of Sri Lanka 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 he was ordained a Priest of God on 16 September 2000, by Archbishop Fernando who had gladly admitted him to be a candidate to priesthood from Colombo Archdiocese, five years ago.

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 the year 2004, to continue further his studies on Education and he returned to the country in the year 2005, having obtained his Masters in Educational Science. Back in Sri Lanka, he served in the tutorial staff of Colombo Catholic Colleges including both St. Joseph’s Maradana, St. Peter’s Bambalapitiya and he was serving as the Rector of St. Sebastian College, Moratuwa, when His Holiness Pope Francis on 13 July, this year named the Third Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Colombo assigning him the Titular See of Materiana.

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 rites, rituals and customs of the Tamil community. His appointment is the beginning of a new era because there had been no such a choice even at the time of the foreign Missionaries and the Prelates who assumed the role of shepherding during the past eight decades, having transferred the Church related matters to indigenous clergy, the sons of the soil.

Thus the appointing 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 Jaffna peninsula born and bred, belonging to another community manifests well and enlightens the true meaning of the Word Catholic, all embracing universality. It is a model for others to follow, as it silently says Catholics do not treat anyone as second class citizens but all are equal as all humans come from one human family. 

Appointment of Bishop Elect Msgr Anton Ranjith to be part and parcel of the Archdiocese of Colombo, the Metropolitan of the Western Province with Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara in deep silence teaches us all the universality of the Catholic Church. It teaches us that when a community acts under the leadership of the universality of the Church and those are elevated to the positions they really deserve, the countries, the nations and the Church, in the respective lands could successfully move forward.

Perusing the pages of Sri Lanka Catholic Church history we find Sri Lanka church history goes beyond the times, when the country was under the siege of the foreign powers. The Catholic Church history runs to the times of the fifth century. It is a historical fact that Catholic Church takes her roots in 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 the Year 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 flourish faith 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 4 February 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 3 December 1834, created Sri Lanka then Ceylon, an independent diocese in 1837. In the year 1845, 17 February, taking a further step the Holy See created the Colombo Diocese. Pope Leo XIII elevated Colombo Diocese to the status of Metropolitan Archdiocese on 1 September 1886. Pope Pius XII changed the name, to be known as Archdiocese of Colombo, in Ceylon, on 6 December 1944 and Pope Paul VI, on 22 May 1972, on the very day Sri Lanka became a Republic, the very first Pope to a brief visit Sri Lanka on 4 December 1970, while Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the Prime Minister, took steps to simply refer as the Archdiocese of Colombo. 

The religious affairs of the country and the Colombo Diocese were run under the supervision of the Missionaries from 1836 to 1947, and the historical event took place with the transferring of Sri Lanka Church affairs by the native Sri Lankans, the indigenous clergy 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 a Prince of Church, the first Cardinal from Sri Lanka.

His Eminence Thomas Benjamin Cardinal Cooray OMI was responsible for creating the Auxiliaries to the Archdiocese beginning from the year 1962 with the appointment of Rev. Fr. Anthony de Saram His Auxiliary with the approval of Rome and in the line of Auxiliary Bishops history Msgr. Anton Ranjith Pillianayagam Episcopal Consecration today (Saturday) 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. That ability to speak in all the major languages in use in the country will help him a long way in serving Colombo, a diocese mixed and affluent.

We implore the Grace of God to the Auxiliary Bishop-elect in carrying out his duties and good health to serve the Archdiocese of Colombo. 

Seven Bishops of ‘Little Vatican’:

1. Bishop Jerome Emilianuspillai, O.M.I.

2. Bishop Jacob Bastiampillai Deogupillai

3. Bishop Rayappu Joseph

4. Bishop Thomas Emmanuel Savundaranayagam

5. Bishop Justin Bernard Gnanapragasam

6. Bishop Leo Rajendram Antony

7. Bishop Joseph Kingsley Swampillai

Nine Auxiliaries of Colombo Archdiocese:

1. Antony de Saram

2. Franck Marcus Fernando

3. Edmund Josef Fernando omi

4. Oswald Gomis

5. Malcolm Ranjith

6. Vincent Marius Joseph Peiris

7. Fidelis Lional Emmanuel Fernado

8. Maxwell Granville Silva

9. Don Anton Jayakody