CNAL on raid on Prem Nivasa

Secretary, Catholic National Association of the Laity (CNAL) Victor Silva has issued the following media release on the National Child Protection Authority’s raid on Prem Nivasa.

“It is with great dismay and sadness that we note the unfair treatment, wrongful accusations, malicious media publicity and bitter harassment meted out recently to the Sisters of Blessed Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity who run Prem Nivasa at Rawatawatta, Moratuwa.

Prem Nivasa which has been in existence since 1984, is a home where the Missionaries of Charity have been carrying out their mission of mercy looking after abandoned children, and unwed mothers including many unfortunate girls (some of whom have been made pregnant by their own kith and kin), irrespective of race or creed. If not for the tremendous love and care showered upon these unfortunate women by the Missionaries of Charity, many of them would have resorted to aborting their unwanted babies and either committed suicide or ended up as mentally disturbed patients or even as street women. In the same way, the lives of all the abandoned children were not only saved but their future was secured because of the untiring efforts of these Sisters.

While acknowledging the right of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and the police to conduct investigations, we strongly condemn the high-handed and brutal manner in which they acted to question the Sisters and subsequently arrest and obtain a remand order from Court to detain Reverend Sister Mary Eliza the Superior of Prem Nivasa at midnight on November 25, 2011 without sufficient evidentiary material, on their own admission to Court.

The presence of television crews and other media personnel along with the NCPA and the Police, and the subsequent malicious and false publicity given by some media organisations leave much room for one to speculate whether in fact the raid was a publicity stunt by those involved or whether it was a move by an unseen force seeking to arouse religious disharmony, or both.

We Sri Lankans take pride in our culture, generosity and hospitality. This apparently pre-meditated and brutal raid on Prem Nivasa and obtaining an order to remand Reverend Sister Mary Eliza have, no doubt severely tarnished the image of Sri Lanka the world over. It is the bounden duty and responsibility of all those in authority to ensure that this type of harassment will never be repeated in our beloved country.

The submissions made to the Court on December 15, 2011 by the NCPA that the investigations did not disclose any illegal child trafficking, and the subsequent ruling by the Court acquitting Reverend Sister Mary Eliza have now vindicated the innocence of the Prem Nivasa Sisters.

It was Jesus Christ who forewarned His followers thus: “They will seize and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons..... because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defence before hand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute” (Gospel of St. Luke, 21:12-15).

May the joy of suffering humiliation and persecution for the sake of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ strengthen the zeal and commitment of the Missionaries of Charity Sisters (in particular that of Reverend Sister Mary Eliza who became the first MC Sister in the world to be put in remand prison) to continue their mission of mercy and love.

We take this opportunity to commend the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity for their Christ-like spirit of love, mercy, and forgiveness in responding to such harshness, humiliation, harassment and malicious false publicity”.