SRI LANKA PROVINCE
Our Vision
"Towards a reconciled Sri Lanka upholding pluralistic, religious, cultural and democratic values."
Our Mission
"To realize the dreams and aspirations of our people, we, the members of the Society of Jesus in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, commit ourselves to, Engage in pastoral and spiritual care of the faithful; Strengthen social interventions to uphold our cherished values; Promote quality education; Reorient the youth with value base and employability skills. Build up the life of the war affected people, the marginalized and the under privileged through peace and reconciliatory interventions; in collaboration with like-minded people and organizations to become a voice for change."
Jesuits in Sri Lanka
According to Fr S G Perera, a well-known Jesuit Historian in the Church of Sri Lanka, the first arrival of the Jesuits in the country, then known as Ceylon, goes back to the time of St Francis Xavier. First as a part of the Indian Province, in Mannar in 1561, which lasted until 1608, and subsequently in Colombo in 1602.
The second Jesuit era begins when in 1893 Pope Leo XIII founded the Papal Seminary in Kandy, Sri Lanka, entrusting its direction and administration to the Society of Jesus and also with the contemporaneous founding of the two dioceses of Trincomalee-Batticaloa and Galle.
The responsibility of administering the two newly founded dioceses was entrusted to the Society of Jesus and the two dioceses were manned by Jesuits from two independent European Provinces (Champagne-France and Belgian respectively). However, these two provinces, with the responsibility for the newly founded dioceses, opted for the same names to identify themselves, such as, the Jesuits of the Trincomalee-Batticaloa mission and the Jesuits of the Galle mission. These two mission provinces, though later exchanged their responsibility with two other provinces (New Orleans-USA and Naples-Italy respectively) of the Society of Jesus, were amalgamated into a Vice Province in 1962 which eventually became the Jesuit Province of Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lanka Jesuit Province includes not only Jesuits working in diverse ministries in Sri Lanka, but also those engaged in different apostolates in Pakistan which is our mission.
The Sri Lanka Jesuit Province completes 50 years as a Province on 15th August 2012 and the Pakistan mission too completes 50 years of Jesuit presence in October 2011.
During these past 50 years many a stalwarts have laboured in this field serving tirelessly this land and our people. It is incumbent on us to carry forward their inspiration and nature the seeds they have sown to bring into fruition.
Courtesy: https://www.catholic-television.com/jesuits-in-sri-lanka/
Message of Fr. General for the Jubilee Year
Dear Friends in the Lord, With deep gratitude to the Lord I am happy to address you with a few words of thanks and encouragement as you begin the jubilee year of the Sri Lanka Province.
The fifty years long journey of Jesuits in Sri Lanka includes many moments to look back and savour with joyful memories the wonderful deeds the Lord has accomplished in and through Sri Lankan Province Jesuits. In small ways and in grand ways God has blessed Sri Lanka and the world through the actions of Sri Lankan Jesuits. However, we must be honest in admitting that these years have often included painful moments as well. Within its first ten years the Province lost its vibrant educational institutions. In more recent years issues stemming from diversity and ethnic conflict not only affected your life and work in the Province but resulted in repercussions in neighbouring countries and throughout the world. Yet you have not been overwhelmed by these challenges. Instead, taking to heart the example of the first companions, you have learned to be friends in the Lord. For just as the first French and Spanish Jesuits protected and cared. for each other as they travelled between rival armies in their journey from Paris to Rome, you have cared for and protected one another in the face of violence and hatred based on ethnic rivalries.
St. Ignatius and the first companions were convinced that it was the power of God that enabled them to overcome potential sources of division. In the deeply divided and war-torn Europe of the sixteenth century, they knew that only the Lord could bring them together and keep them together so they could become the Society of Jesus. They recognized that their companionship was not a human institution but a divine gift that emerged from their common desire to love and serve the Lord in all things. Let me then take this opportunity to thank you for all the ways you have imitated the founders of our Society in overcoming ethnic division and conflict. Your example is important for every member of the Society as each of us learns more deeply some of the key truths underlined for us at General Congregation 35: “Despite the differences, what unites us as Jesuits is Christ and the desire to serve him” (GC 35, D/2, no: 2); “We Jesuits, then fmd our identity not alone but in companionship” (GC 35, D/2, no: 3).
While thanking you for all that you have allowed the Lord to work in you and through you during the past fifty years, I also want to encourage you as the Province prepares to make the Spiritual Exercises according to the 19th Annotation, beginning with the Advent of 2011 and ending with Pentecost in 2012. I pray that this will be a grace-filled time for you to examine and intensify your commitment to the Lord and to one another. Let me urge you to imbibe deeply the spirit at the core of our way of proceeding so that the inner law of charity that St. Ignatius describes so often in the Constitutions may become an ever more spontaneous expression of your lives of dedicated service.
Although the Sri Lanka Province may be small in size and numbers, throughout the universal Society, especially in Asia Pacific and in South Asia, you are known as men who are friendly and exuberant. I pray that your golden jubilee year may be a time for appreciating how much God has blessed you in all the experiences that have made you a friendly and exuberant apostolic body that proclaims in word and deed the love of God that has been given to us in Christ Jesus the Lord. May the Lord bless you during this jubilee and all the years to come.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Adolfo Nicolas, S.J.
Former Superior General of The Society of Jesus.
List of Provicial Superiors
1. Fr. CROWTHER, Alfred Emmanuel Arsaularetnam
Birth: 4th June 1897, Batticaloa
Entry into the Society: 1st February 1918
Provincial: First Provincial of the Vice Province of Ceylon from 15th August 1962 to 27th April 1968
Provincial Curia: Fatima Retreat House, Lewella, Kandy.
2. Fr. MORAN, William Haward
Birth: 31st July 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Entry into the Society: 15th August 1942
Provincial: Second Provincial of the Vice Province from 27th April 1968 to 18th March 1972
Provincial Curia: Fatima Retreat House, Lewella, Kandy.
3. Fr. PERNIOLA, Vito
Birth: 10th April 1913, Santeramo, Bari, Italy
Entry into the Society: 12th April 1928
Provincial: Third Provincial of the Vice Province from 18th March 1972 to 25th February 1975
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo - 04
4. Fr. CURIACOSE, Thomas Chingamparambil
Birth: 28th December 1920, Quilon, Kerala, India
Entry into the Society: 1st October 1944
Provincial: Fourth Provincial of the Vice Province from 22nd February 1975 to 6th February 1980
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo - 04
5. Fr. Daly, Claude
Birth: 18th June 1916, Austin, Texas, USA
Entry into the Society: 26th August 1931
Provincial: Fifth Provincial of the Vice Province from 27th May 1980 to 5th January 1983
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo – 04
6. Fr. SAMARASINGHE, Ashley
Birth: 4th March 1937, Galle
Entry into the Society: 20th July 1957
Provincial: Sixth Provincial of the Vice Province from 6th January 1983 to 1st April 1986
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo – 04
7. Fr. PIERIS, Noel Felix Anton
Birth: 24th April 1944, Ratnapura
Entry into the Society: 5th August 1962
Provincial: Seventh Provincial of the Province from 1st April 1986 to 12th May 1992
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo – 04
8. Fr. KURUKULA ARACHCHI, Peter
Birth: 1th August 1939, Ampitiya, Kandy
Entry into the Society: 14th August 1957
Provincial: Eighth Provincial of the Province from 12th May 1992 to 22nd April 1998
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo – 04
9. Fr. PERERA, Ashley
Birth: 30th May 1943, Ragama
Entry into the Society: 5th August 1962
Provincial: Ninth Provincial of the Province from 22nd April 1998 to 22nd April 2004
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo – 04
10. Fr. SEBASTIAN, Maria Anthony
Birth: 19th January 1950, Harasbedde, Nuwara Eliya
Entry into the Society: 30th June 1974
Provincial: Tenth Provincial of the Province from 22nd April 2004 to 24th May 2010
Provincial Curia: Nirmala, 31 Clifford Place, Colombo – 04 (Moved to Negombo on 27th December 2009)
11. Fr. RASIAH, Francis Jeyaraj
Birth: 9th July 1958, Kayts, Jaffna
Entry into the Society: 30th June 1977
Provincial: Eleventh Provincial of the Province from 24th May 2010 to 8th December 2016
Provincial Curia: St. Xavier Residence, Akkara Panaha, Negombo
12. Fr. GRAY, Dexter Fredric
Birth: 5th March 1963, Batticaloa
Entry into the Society: 14th August 1990
Provincial: Twelfth Provincial of the Province from 8th December 2016 to Date
Provincial Curia: St. Xavier Residence, Akkara Panaha, Negombo
13. FR. ANGELO SUJEEWA PATHIRANA
Birth: 10th December 1970, Wattala
Entry into the Society: 05th August 1991
Provincial: Thirteenth Provincial of the Province from 12th March 2022 to Date
Provincial Curia: St. Xavier Residence, Akkara Panaha, Negombo
