The Sri Lankan government is now trying to arrest the leaders who were at the forefront of the recent protests against the president and the previous government. The Sri Lankan Church says that the government is persecuting and oppressing the Catholic priests and other religious leaders who were in the leadership line of the opposition.

Debt and inflation drove the country into poverty. Cessation of fertilizer imports has reduced rice production significantly. There was a situation of non-availability of petrol and cooking gas fuels in the country. Then protests arose in many parts of the country for survival.

A series of protests led to the resignation and exile of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the collapse of the government.

Fr Jayawardena of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate believes that the government is using the Emergency Act to silence disgruntled citizens.

So, when emergency law is in place, the police can arrest people because it goes beyond the normal law of the land. So under the guise of this, with the help of this emergency law, the leaders have been arrested with very lame excuses. Especially since the government fears that these leaders will come together, arrests are being made with the aim of silencing these protesters. One of the priests arrested on the basis of this law is Fr. Pires Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

It was the arrests and persecution of leaders like Fr Peiris that prompted the Sri Lankan Church to condemn this situation. 21 religious congregations with more than 1,600 priests and religions have signed the document showing their concern about the government.

The persecution is not limited to Catholics: two Buddhist monks have also received arrest warrants. None of the protesting leaders will be allowed to leave the country and their passports have been revoked.

Most of these protesters are not from political parties, most of them are social rights defenders. They speak for the people, the poor and the economic difficulties the country is facing.

The country has been led to such a situation by misappropriation of money, wrong policies - wrong economic policies - and years of corruption. Politicians looted people's money and pushed them into poverty Fr. Jayawardena said.

Father Jayawardena says that the Pope treats the people of Sri Lanka regardless of religion, and he recently donated 100,000 euros to the victims of the 2019 terrorist attacks.