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On 2008-8-27
COLOMBO (UCAN) -- Two years after a Catholic priest and a layman assisting him disappeared on the war-torn Jaffna peninsula, a group of Catholics came together to pray and call for a resolution of the case.
About 60 priests, nuns and laypeople including the parents and relatives of Father Thiruchchelvan Nihal Jim Brown stood in silence and prayed in the Center for Society and Religion (CSR) in Colombo on Aug. 20, two years to the day since the disappearances.
"Silence on the Church's part would amount to an indirect form of consent to such continuing crimes," Oblate Father Oswald Firth, a human rights activist, told the audience, explaining the need to raise the problem of disappearances.
The gathering prayed for 34-year-old Father Jim Brown, as he is commonly known, and Wenceslaus Vincent Vimalan, 40. They disappeared from the Allaipiddy parish where the priest had taken up his post as parish priest only 10 days earlier. Fighting was reported in the area at the time and the priest is said to have helped people flee the area.
The people who came together this Aug. 20 also prayed for two other priests -- Fathers Nicholapillai Packiaranjith and Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam -- both killed by mine explosions over the last two years while doing humanitarian work in the northern war zone.
The Christian Alliance for Social Action and CSR held the prayer meeting to call attention to the continuing problem of disappearances and kidnappings linked to the two-decade-old conflict between Tamil rebels and the Sinhalese-led government. The unsolved case of Father Jim Brown and Vimalan was a particular focus.
Church people, including Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam of Jaffna, have called on the authorities to investigate the disappearance of the two.
Marian Thiruchchelvan, 60, the missing priest's father, told UCA News, "I wish for justice, but what I wish is far away and only prayer gives relief." He said his family was waiting for the police to conclude their investigation.
Ruki Fernando, a representative of Law and Society Trust, also spoke with UCA News. He said he recently visited the Allaipiddy parish and claimed many people would have been killed in the area had Father Jim Brown not been there two years ago to help them. Fernando highlighted that three priests have disappeared or been killed over the last two years.
Father Jude Nixon, parish priest of St. Mary's Church in Sillalai, Jaffna, who attended the seminary with Father Jim Brown, expressed concern that "few priests will come forward to continue the struggle."
Continuing with the work of Father Jim Brown, he told UCA News, will show "our gratitude for the work of the missing priest."
URL to article: http://www.ucanews.com/2008/08/27/catholics-continue-call-for-justice-over-priests-disappearance/
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