The Catholic Council convened with government representatives at the Presidential Secretariat on Thursday (21) for the first time in nine years, opening a formal channel between the Catholic Church and the state on religious-education matters long left unresolved.
The meeting was co-chaired by Science and Technology Minister Chrishantha Abeysena and Presidential Secretary Dr Nandika Sanath Kumanayake. The agenda focused on administrative problems at government-acquired Catholic schools, the establishment of a structured teacher cadre for Catholic religious education, and the recruitment of Catholic nuns and priests into the teaching profession.
Participants also discussed mechanisms to strengthen Education Ministry support for the administration of Catholic schools taken over by the state — a long-standing grievance dating back to the school takeovers of the 1960s.
Speaking at the meeting, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith thanked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the government for facilitating the talks. He said the objective was to ensure every student had the opportunity to study their own religion without discrimination, and stressed the need to address existing issues within the education sector.
It was decided that the forum will meet three times a year. Senior Additional Secretary to the President Roshan Gamage was appointed secretary to the forum.
Several Catholic bishops, clergy and Education Ministry officials attended the meeting. The agreement to institutionalise the dialogue marks the most substantive Church-state engagement since the Easter Sunday attacks accountability cycle began, and resets a relationship that has been strained by both the schools dispute and the long-running Easter investigation.
