Sri Lankan Catholics remember the late Oblate Cardinal Thomas Benjamin Cooray as a man who was “never silent in front of injustice.” The country’s first and still only cardinal faced “a painful situation when the government decided to take over Christian schools,” his former secretary, Father Mervyn Fernando, told a Colombo forum organized by the Christian Alliance for Social Action.
Cardinal Cooray resisted the the government’s 1960 nationalization of all primary schools, which left the Church with only 47 schools from the 764 it had previously operated.
“The Church felt a new atmosphere was beginning wherein they could create and shape their own society and culture, but it also brought in problems,” Oblate Father Leopold Ratnasekera, assistant secretary general of Bishop’ conference in Sri Lanka, told the forum that focused on the life and times of Cardinal Cooray.
Although extreme nationalistic tendencies linked to Sinhala Buddhism began to develop, the country also began to identify with its multiplicity of ethnic groups and religions, Father Ratnasekera added.
Various forum participants described Cardinal Cooray as a “committed leader” and “a gift from God” who helped the Church to maintain its influence in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.
The Oblate prelate, born in 1901 to a poor family, became a priest in 1929. He was ordained coadjutor archbishop of Colombo in March 1946 and succeeded as head of the archdiocese in July 1947, becoming Sri Lanka´s first native archbishop.
After Pope Paul VI elevated him to cardinal in 1965, he took part in the election of Popes John Paul I and John Paul II.
Cardinal Cooray retired as archbishop of Colombo in September 1976 and died on Oct. 29, 1988
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