President Anura Kumara Dissanayake held talks with Catholic religious leaders led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith at the Presidential Secretariat, focusing on national unity, investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks, and community development.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met with Catholic religious leaders at the Presidential Secretariat on Thursday, with His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, heading the delegation. The meeting brought together senior government officials including Deputy Minister of Religious and Cultural Affairs Muneer Mulaffer and the President's Senior Additional Secretary Roshan Gamage, alongside several Catholic priests.
The discussions centered on the government's stated commitment to strengthening coexistence and reconciliation across religious and ethnic communities. Officials emphasised efforts to prevent sectarian and religiously motivated violence as part of a broader national unity agenda. Progress on investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks—which targeted churches and hotels in Sri Lanka—featured prominently in the talks.
Beyond security and reconciliation matters, the meeting addressed environmental protection and its impact on citizens' welfare. Catholic religious leaders raised concerns specific to their communities, including infrastructure development in Catholic-majority areas and steps needed to improve conditions in those regions.
According to official accounts, the Catholic delegation expressed support for the government's community trust-building measures. However, the sources provided—both citing the President's Media Division—offer only the government's characterisation of the meeting outcomes, with no independent verification of the discussions or any alternative perspectives from the Catholic leadership.