by Rajan Philips-January 24, 2015, 6:58 pm
"Lions and Foxes reconcile, the Pope becalms, and all seem well but for neo-constitutional nit pickers" –that was going to be the title of my column last week, which was interrupted by the death of my father, and the news of which was most kindly inserted by the Editor in the editorial page of last week’s Sunday Island. I thank him for that. As the title would indicate, I was going to write about two events of significance that were not included in the new President’s 100-day timetable, but dominated President Sirisena’s and his government’s first week in office. The first event was the pre-scheduled three day visit of the universally popular Pope Francis, which produced a calming effect on the country coming out of a momentous but mercifully less violent presidential election. The Pope came, he saw, he blessed, and he left after visiting Madhu and canonizing Sri Lanka’s first Catholic Saint – Joseph Vaz, the Oratorian Missionary from Goa who ministered the island’s early generations of Sinhalese and Tamil Catholics, in the 18th century, defying Dutch persecution and winning the protection of the Sinhalese Kings of Kandy.